After the War
by HowlOak
Summary: Percy and Annabeth find themselves apart after the Titan war, she's stuck in San Francisco while he's in New York. They both go to high school separately, for now. But Aphrodite won't let her favorite demigod couple stay away from each other for long… It will become the normal 'Annabeth surprises Percy at high school,' but starts earlier. PERCABETH
1. My First Second Year Ever

**Percy and Annabeth find themselves apart after the Titan war, she's stuck in San Francisco while he's in New York. They both go to high school separately, for now. But Aphrodite won't let her favorite demigod couple stay away from each other for long…**

**(It will become the normal 'Annabeth surprises Percy at high school,' but starts earlier)**

Chapter 1

My First Second Year Ever

Percy POV

I sighed and smiled. I smelled lemon shampoo and heard soft waves crashing on a sandy shore. I didn't see exactly where I was, but I knew that I had felt the exact same way before…

_BRIIIING RIIIING RIIIING_

Oh. Right. I felt reality shoot back at me like a slingshot. I was lying in my bed, the covers wrapped around my legs and strewn across the rest of me. I felt the cold air tickle my chest; I wished I had put a shirt on to sleep, it wasn't so hot out anymore. September had come, but all I wanted was to hold on to summer.

Summer! I remembered what my dream was, it was when Annabeth and I had sat on the beach together, the day that she had left for San Francisco. We had laid in the sand, her head on my chest, talking and laughing for hours, not wanting to say goodbye. But summer was over now. Those amazing weeks, when I spent all day with her, they were over too. Of course we were still together, but she had to go live with her father for a while. After the Titan war, he wouldn't let her stay in New York, even if she was the Architect of Olympus, I guess he wanted to spend more time with her. Now it was September 3rd, the first day of school. I groaned, not wanting to open my eyes, afraid that the dream might fade away.

I finally turned to my annoying and still beeping alarm clock and shut it off. It was 7:30, I had to be at school in half an hour. I heard the oven, the clink of silverware and muffled laughter coming from the kitchen. I sat up on the edge of my bed and slipped my pants on, dark jeans that I wished were pajamas, because that would mean I could sleep more… I smelled pancakes and forced myself to stand up. I heard my stepdad, Paul, in the next room too. Paul was an English teacher at Goode High School, where I had to be in… 25 minutes… great. I threw a gray shirt on, it sort of reminded me of Annabeth, and stumbled into the kitchen to eat. My mom, Sally Jackson, the greatest cook and person alive, was at the stove making our signature blue pancakes. Paul sat at the counter, reading the newspaper and sipping coffee from a mug that said: #1 MOM. I laughed and they both turned around as I sat down to a plate of blue breakfast.

"Morning sweetie," my mom said grinning.

I yawned slowly, "hmmmm? Morning mom…" I rubbed the back of my neck and took a sip of juice.

Paul turned to me mid-sip and asked, "ready for your sophomore year Percy?"

I had never really stayed at a school long enough to go a second year, danger just seemed to follow me for some unknown reason… Now I was starting 10th grade and it's a pretty big accomplishment. I replied, much more awake, "yeah, I think so." But I wasn't so sure. Last year my best friend at Goode had been Rachel Dare, the recently appointed Oracle of Delphi and new recruit to the Clarion Ladies Academy finishing school upstate. I had other friends last year, but no one as close to me as Rachel. Plus they might be mad at me, I hadn't spoken to any of them over the summer, I had been a little busy saving the world…

After breakfast I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I looked in the mirror, the guy in front of me, my reflection, was completely different from the little 12 year old that thought his dad had died at sea. Now I'm stronger and taller, no longer the scrawny kid who used to get picked on by people like Nancy Bobofit. I had battle scars (although they may be my last seeing as though I'm invincible at the moment) and an only slightly noticeable gray streak in my hair. I lifted those gray hairs up in the mirror and twisted them in between my fingers. I remembered the weight of the world, but even worse, seeing Annabeth in pain, with a matching streak to prove it. I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard Paul call from the front door. I rushed to get ready, brushing my teeth and pulling my sneakers on. They were light gray fabric with a little pen-drawn trident on the left shoe's side; Rachel had gotten bored last year and decided to get artsy. I swung my backpack over my shoulder and rushed out into the hall, putting my hand to my neck for a second to check if my camp necklace was still there.

Paul and I walked out of the building and into his car. I sat in the passenger seat and took out my phone. Well it wasn't really a phone, the Hephaestus cabin had made me a type of monster-proof cell phone; technology and demigods don't mix well. It was a little bulkier (not by much) than a regular phone, and I only had five numbers on it: Rachel, Annabeth, mom, Paul and Nico (but they don't get good reception in the Underworld). But I still liked it a lot, I get to be a little more like a normal teenager without monsters trying to kill me. Annabeth could use one too but she has had her secret cell phone for a while, she's used to it. When I turned the screen on I saw that Rachel had called me during breakfast. I hit redial and she picked up immediately.

"Percy! Thank the gods, I am so bored…"

"Sounds like finishing school's a blast, what are you doing now that's so boring?"

"Eating breakfast… but everyone here is so preppy and fake, plus they hardly eat any food! I miss Sally and her blue pancakes!"

"Ouch that's rough, guess you shouldn't have left then, oh mighty Oracle. Couldn't you see that you were going to have a bleak future without me in school?"

"Percy I will hang this phone up right now! You know this wasn't my choice…"

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. I just am going to miss you at Goode."

"I miss you too, everyone here is _so annoying_" she whispered the last part.

"Well at least try to make _some_ friends."

She laughed, "I will if you will Jackson."

"Hey I've got friends!"

"How do you know they weren't just hanging out with you because they wanted to be friends with me?"

"Because that is the most ridiculous thing that anyone has ever said." I was trying not to laugh but Rachel burst out on the other end and I couldn't help myself. I could see Paul smiling in the corner of my eye as we pulled up in front of the school gates. I got out of the car, still on the phone, and waved goodbye to Paul. I rounded the corner to the students' entrance, a courtyard/asphalt area in front of the doors where kids hung out before and after school. As I turned the corner I saw all of my friends sitting together, some on a bench and some on the ground. When they saw me they waved me over, I said bye to Rachel and stuffed my phone into my bag as I walked over to them.

I said hi to everyone, there were my swim team friends: Miles, Andre and Tanner. There was also Miles' girlfriend: Alice, Andre's girlfriend: Marie and our other friend Mel. They were all laughing and talking about their summers. They all stood up when I came over and said hi, giving me hugs and pats on the back. After we said our hellos we all sat back down in a big group.

Alice smiled and said, "So Percy, what did you do over the summer?"

I thought about it for a second, "I went to camp, and the beach…" leaving out a few crucial details. They nodded, not a very eventful story.

Marie asked, "so who were you on the phone with before?"

"Rachel." I heard some giggles and ooohs, Tanner patted me on the shoulder and said, "so where is your other half? You came to the first day of school without your girlfriend?"

I scrunched my eyebrows, "Guys! Rachel is _not _my girlfriend, we're just friends."

"Oh yeah, right…" Marie laughed.

"Besides, she's going to a ladies finishing school upstate this year, her dad's making her."

Mel pouted sincerely, "Oh that sucks, we really liked her." There were murmurs of agreement.

Andre broke the moment of silence, continuing a story that I had walked in on, "So as I was saying, there were like twenty foot waves, so I get to the cabana but my sister…" We talked and laughed for a while, discussing our summers. I guess a lot of us had gone away, so it wasn't a big deal that I hadn't stayed in touch. I thought about Annabeth, how that right now she would be asleep in San Francisco. I had stayed up late last night so that when I called her it wouldn't be so late over there, but I had fallen asleep anyways so I just texted her instead. She hadn't really been to a normal school in a while, so I didn't know how she would feel, I hoped she wasn't nervous, or ended up pulling her knife out at some innocent mortal…

The bell rang and broke our fit of laughter, none of us were excited for school. Well except for Alice, she's kind of a nerd in that way, sort of like Annabeth. I'm glad my guy friends have found nice girls, I didn't want to spend all day with some bratty Aphrodite-types (don't tell her I said that) just because they were dating my friends. There are certainly girls like that at Goode, Kelli and her empousi friends were not the end of annoying cheerleaders last year. There's this group of girls, some are cheerleaders, who act like they own this place. Their 'leader,' Seraphina, is pretty mean to some of the other girls here. Not my friends but I think that's because they are dating athletes; Seraphina thinks that because we're on the swim team, that we are supposed to join her group, because 'popular boys go with popular girls,' at least that's what she said last year. I don't know… I definitely don't think of myself as popular, and I don't want to be if it means being the type of person that she is.

We all walked into the building, seeing the incoming freshman be nervous and the multiple 'Goode is Good' signs on the walls. I realized that this was the first time I wasn't the new kid in school. It is weird knowing where everything is, but also liberating, like I have one less thing to worry about in High School. With my dyslexia and ADHD, _and _being a demigod that's swarmed by monsters, that's still a whole lot of stuff. I said bye to my friends as we headed to our separate lockers, except Mel came with me because her locker was really close to mine. We got there and turned our combinations, well she did, I had to look in my bag for the piece of paper that I wrote it on. Remembering that for an entire summer is hard! She laughed as I finally opened my locker, it was empty because I had cleaned it out last year. I started putting some books in it. The last thing I did was put up three pictures on the inside of the door: the one that I used to keep in my notebook of Annabeth when we were twelve, one of Thalia, Grover, Annabeth and I in front of Thalia's tree, and lastly one of Annabeth and I at the beach, the day she left for her dad's. In the last picture Annabeth is laughing while I'm doing a silly face. As I closed the door Mel shot her hand out and slowly examined the pictures.

"Where are these from Percy? Who is this girl?"

"Oh these are at my camp, the one I went to over the summer, and that's Annabeth-"

**Cliff Hanger! Sorry guys but it's going to get more interesting, I promise!**

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**But seriously, review. And YES, ANNABETH WILL JOIN HIM AT GOODE… A LITTLE LATER IN THE STORY. So subscribe and review and keep reading and all that (read my Mark of Athena!). Comment with some things that you want to happen to Percy at High School :) **

**NO, RACHEL WILL NOT DATE PERCY. SHE'S THE FREAKING ORACLE PEOPLE.**

**YES, ANNABETH IS COMING.**

**YES, YOU SHOULD REVIEW, THANKS FOR ASKING.**


	2. Gray Eyed and Tired

**Wow, all I can say is that I couldn't be happier with these reviews and subscriptions! I actually love you all so much! Here are some shout-outs (which I don't normally do but you all deserve it): ****Whyyougottabesomean – thank you so much! (love the pic btw) TheLovelyDreamChaser – thanks! Your story is amazing too! Booklover484, PSdancer54, Wingz-and-a-fez, Kaitie85386, ALittleCrazy99 and MilkyD – thank you all!  
Well enough of that, here's Annabeth's point of view in California, the same day. Next chapter will be the continuation of Percy's story in Goode!**

**(I don't own PJO or the characters, just everything else in this, basically)**

Chapter 2

Gray Eyed and Tired

Annabeth POV

I wouldn't open my eyes, I just wanted to sleep a few more minutes… I sighed and snuggled deeper into my covers, rubbing my arms. I wrapped my hand around my left wrist, feeling the bracelet that I loved. It was a seashell bracelet, given to me from my best friend, and boyfriend, Percy. I groaned and forced myself to sit up, slowly opening my eyes and squinted at the window. I raised my eyebrows, surprised. It looked like a nice day outside of my window, not very normal compared to the annoying fog that I was used to in San Francisco. But today was sunny, a comforting reminder of Camp Half-Blood, where the weather was always nice. I had only been back at my dad's house in California for a week or so, my room had some boxes that I never unpacked, maybe because I didn't really want to stay. But I didn't have a lot of things to unpack anyways, all I really cared about was my Yankees cap and some sentimental jewelry, including my camp necklace around my neck and the silver owl earrings from my mother, on my bureau. I stepped out of bed and slowly shuffled to the bathroom, but the door was locked, one of my brothers was in there and I didn't plan on using the toilet right after Matthew or Bobby, so I headed to the kitchen. My father was reading a book in his chair in the living room while my stepmother was cooking at the oven. I silently sat down at the table, my stepmom saw me and brought over a plate of fruit and a muffin.

I looked up and said, "Thanks." She just smiled a stiff smile and walked back to the kitchen.

I was having a somewhat tough time with my family, my dad had to work a lot, my brothers constantly berated my with questions about demigods, and my stepmom clearly just plain hated me. I didn't know if it was because she was afraid of the monsters that I attracted or because I was her husband's child from another relationship, with a goddess no less (even if I was a brain child). Either way, she and I did not get along. I ate my breakfast in silence, thinking about the rest of my day. I was starting my sophomore year in a new school. I hadn't really been to a lot of schools before, I spent most of my school years at camp. But now that the Titan war ended, my dad had insisted I come stay with him, he finally realized that I was in serious danger of dying, he told me he couldn't take it if he missed the chance to really get to know me before I grew up, or worse. I was absolutely shocked, and not really in a good way. I had been named official architect of Olympus! My life-long dream could be coming true, and I would be able to spend so much more time near my real mother, and Percy. But no, he wouldn't budge on the subject, not until I stayed with him for a little bit. I was hoping that if I lived with him for a few weeks he might let my move back, but I wasn't getting my hopes up. I pushed out my chair and slid my dirty plate next to my stepmother, who was washing dishes, not even waiting for a second glance.

I walked up the stairs and through the hall, passing my brothers' room, one was still snoring while the other was playing video games in a beanbag chair in the corner. I pushed the bathroom door open and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't look too tired, the orange juice had helped. My blonde curls looked pretty bouncy, despite the obvious bed-head, I'd fix that later. I reached up, eyeing the mirror as I twisted a gray lock of hair in my fingers. I thought of how Percy had the same streak, how he had saved me, and took the sky from me. He was so brave. I missed him so much, and I had barely talked to him since I got here. I was pretty used to the time difference, being 3 hours earlier than New York, when we got our school schedules today, I would call him when he got out of school to see if we had any time to talk during the day. I sighed, long distance relationships were brutal. But I still couldn't help but smile, twisting my seashell bracelet around. Percy was the perfect guy for me, I was so happy whenever I even thought of him, just knowing that he is out there thinking about me was hopefully enough to get me through this dreary day.

I refocused on getting ready for school. I brushed my teeth, and put the smallest bit of eyeliner on. One of the nicer Aphrodite girls had showed me how to do it, making it almost impossible to tell I was wearing any makeup at all. I stepped into my room and opened my closet. It probably would have horrified a normal high school girl, practically empty. But I was hoping to get some more clothes this coming weekend, not that I really liked shopping, but I did need clothes, and my dad asked me to find a way to connect with my stepmom more, so we were going to do something she liked. I put on my Camp Half-Blood shirt, but I thought that my stepmom would yell at me for not trying to make a good impression at my new school, it was a pretty old shirt…

I took it off and put on a sea green shirt, I liked it because it reminded me of Percy. I put on a regular pair of jeans and some sandals, they were flat and gladiator-like, very much my style. Lastly I softly brushed out my hair and put on my owl earrings. I checked my clock, it said 7:30, and I had half an hour to get to school, just enough time by public transportation. I packed my book bag, it was an over the shoulder leather bag, it was my father's old work bag, but it fit my books and especially my sketchbook nicely so I was fine with using it for school. I grabbed my phone off of my night table, Percy had a monster-proof phone made by the Hephaestus cabin, being a child of the big three, monsters were more attracted to him. I on the other hand had had a cell phone for a while, despite the technology vs. demigods issue, I didn't really care. In fact, I was done letting monsters rule my life.

I flipped the phone open and saw that Percy had texted me last night.

_Hey Annabeth ;) Sorry if you are sleeping, I stayed up late so I could talk to you but I fell asleep anyways… _I chuckled at that, Percy was always doing dopey but romantic things like that, not especially trying to do either.

I read on: _I'll call you when I get out of school, have a great first day! Make some friends ok? Night :)_

I smiled wide, he was the best. But I really was a bit worried about making friends, I wasn't used to that kind of thing. Whatever, I thought, it won't matter anyways if I'm late for school. I rushed out the door and down the stairs, but not before tucking my knife into a strap above my ankle, hidden by my pants. I yelled goodbye to my dad and stepped outside. I thought for a minute, remembering which direction the trolley was, and then headed that way. When I got on the trolley I relaxed because I realized I definitely had enough time to get to school. As it lurched forward, up the steep hills of San Francisco, I stared out at the passing houses. I felt someone sit down beside me.

"Pretty nice day huh?"

I turned to my left to see a boy about my age sitting beside me, he seemed tall, but he was sitting so it was hard to tell, he had light brown hair and tan skin, with dark brown eyes; good looking, which made I think of Percy, who was so much cuter. "Yeah, I was so tired of that foggy weather, is it usually like that?"

The boy tilted his head a little, "Are you new here?"

"Yeah, I just moved from New York about a week ago."

"Wow, so where do you go to school?"

"Hoover High School," I said, taking a second to remember the name, "sophomore."

"Me too!" He smiled hugely and reached out his hand. "I'm Mark Thomson, and you are?"

"Annabeth… Chase."

The trolley screeched to a halt and Mark motioned to me to get off with him. I nodded and squeezed past the people in the aisle. Once we got off, I wasn't really sure which way to go, clearly that was obvious, because Mark laughed and said, "C'mon, it's this way."

He took my arm and pulled my around a corner. We walked a few more blocks, talking about the school.

"So we have all types of sports teams, do you like sports?"

"Well, I like baseball, but I don't actually play any sports."

"Yeah, I could tell from your Yankees cap."

I quickly patted my back pocket, making sure my hat was still there.

"So what do you like?"

"I like history… and architecture."

"Cool, cool…"

The conversation was running dry, but then we turned the corner to face a large school building with a big courtyard in front, lots of kids were sitting on benches or the grass in front, waiting for the doors to open.

"So I'm gonna say hi to my friends, but I'll see you around?" Mark smiled at me.

"Probably." I waved goodbye as Mark turned and ran off to a crowd of boys a few feet away. I slowly cased the area, looking for a place to sit before school started, maybe I could get some sketching in. I saw a bench with only a girl reading a book, so I headed over there. As I walked over, a group of girls were chatting loudly and squealing, wearing skimpy outfits and tall sandals. As I passed, some of the girls whispered and looked at me, one of them seemed to sneer. I just rolled my eyes and turned away, I had faced prettier and scarier monsters than those girls.

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**Read my Mark of Athena ;) **


	3. The Gorgeous Librarian

**It's a long one guys! Yayyyyyyy! So here's the deal, I love you all, but I'm leaving the country without a laptop IN LIKE TWO WEEKS, so be prepared for like a month of no updates (I'm sorry!). Reviewers! You light up my life! Ok, what else… I don't own PJO!**

Chapter 3

The Gorgeous Librarian

Percy POV

_As I closed the door Mel shot her hand out and slowly examined the pictures._

"_Where are these from Percy? Who is this girl?"_

"_Oh these are at my camp, the one I went to over the summer, and that's Annabeth-"_

The bell rang that second, so I slammed my locker shut, we grabbed our stuff and raced to homeroom. We got there before the teacher, but there were only two seats left that were very far apart from each other. I took one of them and put my stuff down. As I tried to relax in my chair, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Seraphina smiling at me.

"Hi Percy, how was your summer?"

"It was fine…" I didn't want to drag out the conversation but I didn't want to be mean and ignore her, she hadn't done anything horrible just yet, "what about you?"

"Oh it was ok, I would have liked to see you though."

"Well I was pretty busy-"

"Well I guess we'll just have to catch up then won't we? How about tonight-"

The teacher walked in and cleared his throat, making her shrink a little back into her chair. I swiftly turned away from her and looked at the teacher.

"Ok, so I just got your schedules out of the printer, stay in your seats and be quiet while I hand them out."

I waited for the teacher to call out 'Jackson' and I raised my hand, he passed me a sheet of paper and I looked it over, trying to decipher the words. Before I even finished the first word, Seraphina snatched it out of my hand in a playful way and the pouted.

"Oh shoot, we don't have any classes together," I smiled but turned it into a _too-bad-but-what-can-you-do_ sort of face when she looked back up at me. "Wait, we have lunch together! Yay!"

Great, of course we have the one period where we're allowed to talk together, I just hoped my friends had lunch with me too; they could save me from her. I stiffly made _help _eyes at Mel and she came over with her bag as the bell sounding the end of homeroom rang. She came over and snatched me out of the room, dodging Seraphina's chance to walk with me out of class. As we hurried through the halls I stopped and said, "Wait, can you do me a favor Mel?"

She looked at me worried, "yeah, what's wrong Percy?"

I took out my schedule from my back pocket and handed it to her unsteadily, "Could you just read me my schedule, I don't want to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out what it says."

She looked sympathetic, the way most people do when I mention my dyslexia. She already knew about it, most of my friends did. "Of course, of course." She uncrumpled it and read:

"Period 1: Homeroom, Period 2: Math, Period 3: English, Period 4: Science, Period 5: Lunch, Period 6: Foreign Language, Period 7: Free, Period 8: Elective, Period 9: Physical Education." She smiled, "we have lunch together, and maybe some others, I put mine in my bag and I don't really want to get it out now, but we'll find out later, right?"

I grinned, "Thanks! Yeah, I guess we will, see you later!"

She smiled, "Bye Percy."

We walked in opposite directions; I headed for math class. When I got there, there were a lot of empty seats; I took one near the back because math is certainly not my best subject… When I looked up from getting by notebook out, lots of kids were filing in. I didn't see any of my friends, but some jock type guy looked at me and gave me a nod, and then took a seat next to me.

"Hey man, I'm Harrison, you must be Percy Jackson."

"Uh yeah…"

"I'm on the baseball team," he grinned stupidly, like he just became king of the idiots.

I smiled tightly and replied, "Great…"

Just as he was about to say something else that was no doubt intellectual, we heard the clomping of stiletto heels coming from the hall. Most of the students turned to the door, someone was walking inside, probably the teacher. But instead of seeing some old fossil of a teacher that I had expected to teach me math, we were staring at a tall and gorgeous woman, with librarian glasses and a tight, plaid pencil skirt, wearing dark red lipstick. She wasn't carrying anything, not even a book. I looked up at her face, it seemed almost impossible to be so beautiful, her eyes never seemed to rest on a specific color, and she was staring… right at me.

Wait a minute... I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion. The entire class was dead silent, staring at the woman with her hands on her hips, eyes locked on to me. I opened my mouth to speak, breaking the daze of some students, "Aphro-"

She held up a perfectly polished finger that would have silenced even the toughest warrior, interrupting me and causing the entire class to turn in my direction.

"Perseus Jackson, I need to speak with you for a moment."

I slowly got out of my chair and walked to the front door, she followed me out. "Aphrodite, what are you doing here?"

"Percy, Percy, Percy," she shook her head in pity, "I don't think that that is the right question to be asking."

"And what is the right question?" I was getting a bit annoyed.

"The question is, where is Annabeth?"

My heart skipped a beat, I looked down at the floor, "She's in San Francisco…" When I looked up, Aphrodite looked like she was thinking, then she smiled a dazzling smile and put her hand on my cheek, "Don't you worry your gorgeous face, you'll get wrinkles. I'll fix it."

And with that she took a step back and disappeared. I was left wondering which part of this she was going to fix, Annabeth and I, or the wrinkles… I shook my head and stepped back into the classroom. When I walked back in, there was a teacher at the board, a lady that looked how I expected a math teacher to look, either that or a gorgon. She was writing her name in chalk, the white on black writing allowed me to read out, _Ms. Munion_. She turned to me and scowled.

"You're late young man."

I was about to object when I just decided to leave it be, "Sorry ma'am."

I slid back to my seat and sat down, trying to copy the notes that she was writing on the board. The class seemed to have forgotten that Aphrodite even came in, lucky them…

I tried to pay attention but I started to zone out, and before I knew it the period had ended. Next was English class, which Paul taught. I decided to sit in the front of the class because I knew Paul would want me to, even if English is probably my worst subject. He talked about some of the books we were going to read. I was pretty bored until he mentioned that we would do a unit on Ancient Greece and classical literature, but that was a few weeks away.

My next class was science, when I walked in I saw Tanner and Marie talking and sitting on their stools. The classroom was a science lab room, so there were faucets, sinks, and raised stools at every table. I smiled at them as I approached and their faces gleamed. Marie said, "Oh yes! Percy's in this class too!"

They sat at their own table, only two chairs per lab desk, so I took the seat at the one across the aisle. The class started to fill up, a shy looking girl took the empty seat at my table, but she didn't make eye contact with me. The teacher cleared his throat and said, "Hi class, I'm Mr. B, don't ask what the B stands for, I only tell my class at the end of the year." The class laughed, he smirked and continued, "So this year you will be learning Marine Biology, the study of oceanic life." I smiled; this was a class that I could ace. "Everyone turn to the person sitting next to you," I turned to the girl, she did so as well, but slowly, looking a bit at her shoes. She was Asian with long straight hair and freckles on her cheeks. "Now everyone, say hi and introduce yourselves, these will be your lab partners for the rest of the year." Some of the class groaned, others cheered.

I gave her a small wave and said, "Hi, I'm Percy Jackson, and you are?"

She started to talk very quietly, but realized so and raised her voice a bit, "I'm- I'm Lucy Lai."

"So, umm Lucy, what do you like to do…" She wasn't very conversational.

She smiled, getting more friendly, "I like to read, and do martial arts."

"Wow, martial arts?"

"Yeah, my father owns a tae kwon doe studio in midtown, I'm an assistant teacher."

"That's pretty cool, do you get paid for that?"

She giggled and blushed, "No… do you have a job?"

"Not at the moment… swim team practice takes up a lot of my time."

"Oh! I was going to tryout for the swim team, when are tryouts being held?"

Wow, she's impressive, I didn't expect her to be so athletic. "I think on Friday… but I'm not sure, I'm trying out for the position of captain." I could be the captain in an instant, I'm the fastest swimmer around, but breathing underwater helps. Last year my mom wouldn't let me use my powers, to reach my full potential; she thought it was unfair to the other kids that were trying out. But she let that rule go this year, that's why I'm trying out for captain.

She smiled, "That's great! I guess I'll see you there."

Mr. B spoke loudly, "Ok, ok, quiet down everyone, I know it must be amazing to meet new people, but we have to get a little learning in… you two in the back! Stop flirting!" The class giggled and we all turned to look at two very embarrassed teenagers in the back, slowly sliding farther away from each other.

I turned around to see Lucy's eyes wide and her hand over her mouth, laughing. I tilted my head slightly, "What? It wasn't that funny…"

She was giggling, "No, Percy, that's my brother!"

I turned and looked at the embarrassed boy in the corner, he did look like Lucy…

"So you have a twin brother?"

She smiled and shrugged, "Yup."

I nodded, ok then… I guess that wasn't an important fact to her. But to people who don't meet twins that often, well that's something I would like to know, it's pretty cool to have a twin…

Mr. B was standing impatiently at the front of the class. He shook his head and said, "I guess we won't have time for a lesson, tomorrow we'll start your first lab, an underwater ecosystem. After I call attendance you may leave."

He called out our names, I heard Lucy's brother's name called before her, Ben Lai. I said bye to Lucy and started to walk out of class with Marie and Tanner. But Mr. B called me over to talk to him for a moment.

"So, Percy, I see in your transcript that you have ADHD and Dyslexia, is there anything that I can do in class or for your work that might ease your difficulty?"

I shrugged, used to the question, this wasn't Yancy Academy for misfits and losers who all had problems, here at Goode, if you were like me; you were different, special; and treated that way. "No, I don't think so Mr. B, I actually think I might understand this subject, I'm pretty good with water…"

Mr. B smiled and patted me on the shoulder, "Ok man, glad to here it. Now go to your next class before I get in trouble for keeping you." He laughed and sent me on my way. He was a pretty cool teacher, definitely a fun guy. Next up I had lunch, I walked out of class and headed towards the cafeteria. I got to the entrance when I saw Mel and she waved exuberantly at me. "Percy! Hi! Everyone's inside, we all have the same lunch period!"

I smiled, "That's great! Lets go get some food."

I started to take a step forward when I felt a tug at my shirt. I turned around to see Seraphina and her friends smiling at me.

"Percy, there you are, I was looking for _so_ long."

I just raised an eyebrow, I didn't really know how to respond to that.

"So, as you see," she pointed at some posters on the walls saying School Year Dance, "the beginning-of -school dance is in three weeks, and I would like you-" she pointed her polished nail at my chest, "to go with me, as my date of course."

She smiled and put her hands on her hips, waiting for a response. "Ummm, look, Seraphina, that's really nice of you to think of me and all…. But I actually have a girlfriend, so…"

She looked shocked, "_You do?_"

Mel stepped in front of me and smirked, "C'mon Percy, lets go, she clearly can't take a hint."

As Mel pulled me into the lunchroom I heard Seraphina yell, "Who _is_ this girl?"

Mel and I got trays on the line for food, paid for our lunches and started walking to the table, "Wow thanks for pulling me out of that mess." I rubbed the back of my neck, smiling.

Mel laughed and said, "Well you're the genius who thought of pretending to have a girlfriend-"

I was waving at Alice, everyone was sitting at the table a few feet away, I turned to Mel, smiling a little, "I wasn't pretending, I really do have a girlfriend."

We were just placing our trays down at the table when she spoke a little too loudly, so that only the entire school could here her say, "_You really have a girlfriend?_"

The cafeteria silenced, everyone turned to me, then went back to whispering, but I heard my name said quite a few times around me. My friends looked up from their food, giving us faces of confusion and _what-the-heck-did-she-just-say?_.

I plopped down in my chair and popped a fry into my mouth, and smirking at their surprise "Yeah, I do, I really have a girlfriend; Annabeth Chase."

Everyone looked at little shocked, some said 'wow' and 'I didn't know that' and 'why didn't you tell us?' Andre looked at me and laughed, "You're messing with us right?"

I shook my head, laughing too, "No, no, really, I have a girlfriend."

Alice looked curious, "Since when? Who is she, I don't know any Annabeths at Goode…"

"Since this summer, but I've known her since I was twelve, we met at summer camp, but she lives in San Francisco right now, that's why you don't know her."

I looked at everyone, some were nodding, the girls smiled and awwwed. Except Mel, she looked down at her tray, pushing a fry around with her fork. "She's that girl in the pictures in your locker, isn't she?"

**Annabeth! We love you!  
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**Also, Lucy is awesome because she has a twin brother, LIKE ME!**

****If you can tell me which actress Lucy reminds you of the most, and it's who I'm thinking of, you get some sort of prize…**

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**Annabeth is next and things are getting exciting up in San Francisco! Keep reading guys!**


	4. New Friends, New Enemies

**This one is long too! But the next one may take a while to upload, sorry guys. Annabeth is making friends! Yay! Thanks to everyone for all the amazing reviews, but I'll need MORE REVIEWS for the next one, plus NOBODY GUESSED THE RIGHT ACTRESS! **

**Tsk tsk, it was Lucy Liu, look her up!**

**Anyways, I don't own PJO… Here's Annabeth in Hoover High!**

Chapter 4

New Friends, New Enemies

Annabeth POV

_I slowly cased the area, looking for a place to sit before school started, maybe I could get some sketching in. I saw a bench with only a girl reading a book, so I headed over there. As I walked over, a group of girls were chatting loudly and squealing, wearing skimpy outfits and tall sandals. As I passed, some of the girls whispered and looked at me, one of them seemed to sneer. I just rolled my eyes and turned away, I had faced prettier and scarier monsters than those girls. _

I sat down at the bench and took out my sketchbook. The girl sitting next to me looked at me slightly and then back to her book, but then quickly did a double take.

"Woah, are you a model?"

"Ummm no…" I raised my eyebrows, the girl looked slender, She was African American with long curly hair and dark brown eyes, she was wearing glasses and had a pencil behind her ear.

The girl blushed and spoke a little softer, "Oh sorry, it's just you're so pretty…" She gave me a small smile as she tried to change the subject, clearly embarrassed, "So are you new here?"

"Yeah, I'm a sophomore."

"Me too! I'm Luella Smith, what's your name?" The girl smiled wide, maybe making friends wasn't too hard.

"Annabeth Chase."

Just then the bell rang inside the school building and everyone started standing up, heading towards the big red doors. Luella and I got our stuff together; I frowned as I put my sketchpad away, not having been able to work on the plans for Mt. Olympus.

As we walked inside, I asked Luella, "So where's the office? I think I have to get my schedule…"

"I'll take you there, maybe we have some classes together!"

This girl is really cheery, I thought. As we walked down the hall, the rest of the kids at school were at their lockers, talking to their friends. Lots of kids stared at me as I passed, some guys looked me up and down, and girls did too, deciding who I would be. One guy even winked at me. I sighed, missing Percy so much more. Luella led me to the office and I walked towards the front desk. The lady sitting there was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, but I wasn't so happy or awed to see her.

"Lady Aphrodite? _What_ are you doing here?"

"Annabeth my dear, that's no way to talk to your auntie. Now, I just had to come and see for myself…" She looked at me with a small frown, and sighed, "Sweetheart, this just won't do."

I looked at my shirt and back up, scowling a bit, "What? My outfit? Look I-"

"No no darling- well, actually…" she shook her head and continued, "What my real concern is, is that my favorite little lovebird heroes are apart!"

My face went blank, and then a bit sad; "I know… it's not ideal for me either."

Aphrodite smiled a dazzling smile and lifted my chin up with her polished finger, "Don't you worry about a thing sweetie, I'll take care of it."

Aphrodite smiled as she eyed Luella for a moment, whose eyes were wide like a deer in headlights. Then she winked and walked out of the room, but not before brushing her hand over me, instantly painting my nails gray, the color of my eyes. I was about to yell at her but she had disappeared, all I saw was Luella with her mouth wide open.

"_Who_ was that?"

I waved my hand nonchalantly, "Nobody, Luella…" Luella raised her eyebrows for a second but just shrugged and headed over to the front desk, where I stood. I stared at her for a moment, thinking of what mortals would have seen with the mist concealing the goddess.

I turned to see a new lady sitting there, this time she was clearly mortal, maybe gorgon, she was that old. The lady looked up as if she had been sitting there the whole time.

"What can I do for you dearie?"

"I'm Annabeth Chase, I'm a new student."

"Right, let's see now… What grade are you in?" The lady typed some things into an ancient computer.

"Tenth."

"Which elective do you want to take: photography, drawing or athletics?"

Luella whispered in my ear "_I'm taking drawing, don't chose athletics, it's pretty much just a second period of gym. Ugh."_

I nodded and replied, "Drawing." Luella smiled wide, probably thinking I was taking it because she was taking it too. I liked Luella a lot, but I would have picked drawing no matter what, I would love to get more sketching time in.

The lady typed away slowly, looking back up at me with large glasses on her nose, "Do you have any special developmental disorders that you want your teachers to know about?"

I sighed, not really wanting my teachers to know, but I felt like I should say anyways, "Yes, ADHD and Dyslexia."

The lady looked up, a bit surprised, she hit the backspace button a lot, probably because she had assumed I was going to say no. Finally she shuffled over to the printer and handed me a schedule.

Luella looked over my shoulder at my class list. "Ok, so your locker is pretty far from mine, but we're in the same homeroom, and elective of course, and Foreign Language…" She scanned the rest, "well we have lunch together too, but that's all."

"At least we have some classes together, thanks for leading me here, do you think you could show me where my locker is?"

Luella smiled and nodded, dragging me back into the crowd of kids in the hall. Luella took me to the middle of the hallway and pointed to a locker that said 212. My eyes widened, could there _be_ more reminders of New York? I missed it so much. I shook my head out of it and turned my lock's combination. Luella looked at her watch and frowned, "Hey Annabeth, I have to go to my locker now, is it ok if I meet you in homeroom?"

I nodded my head reassuringly, "Yeah of course, I can take it from here."

Luella smiled and bounced away giddily. I opened my locker and put some of my books in it, along with a magnet on the inside of the door that said St. Louis Arch, Gateway to the West. I thought of my first quest with Percy, wow he was an idiot for jumping off of the Arch! But that's my Seaweed Brain. Lastly I took a picture of me and Percy out, we were at the beach, on my last day in New York, Percy was holding me on his back like a piggyback ride while I kissed him on the cheek. I placed it behind the magnet so that it would stay on the door.

As I closed the locker door I saw a familiar face standing next to me. Mark was at his locker, the one right next to mine. Mark looked to the side and smiled happily.

"Well look who it is, I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other, huh?"

I smiled politely, I liked Mark but I hoped he didn't think of me as anything but a friend. "I guess so."

"So Chase, what's your homeroom?"

"Ummm…" I shuffled through my bag for my schedule, "3M, you?"

"Same! I guess it's your lucky day, you get a tour of Hoover High by its greatest student." He chuckled and I laughed too. Mark turned to some guys talking behind him and showed me to them, "Hey Liam, Will, this is Annabeth Chase, Annabeth's a new sophomore."

"Hey guys, nice to meet you."

One was blonde and the other had short black hair. The blonde one replied, "Hi Annabeth, I'm Will, this doofus is Liam, and I guess you unfortunately met Mark already," he leaned in closer and put his hand on my shoulder, "sorry 'bout that, has he been annoying you to death?"

I laughed, "No, actually he's been pretty nice." Mark glared at Will in an _I-will-kill-you_ sort of way and Liam smacked him on the back of his head, probably for calling him a doofus. They all cracked up, even me. Just then the pack of girls that had glared at me earlier came over behind Will and Liam.

The tallest and clearly the leader spoke up, in a valley girl voice that I instantly hated, "Hi guys, Will, Liam, Mark." She said Mark's name longer and more breathy than the rest. I rolled my eyes, way to be subtle…

The guys turned to face her and Liam replied eagerly, "Hey Shelby! You look great!"

Shelby had tanned skin from the summer and pin straight dirty-blonde hair, with a beauty mark above and to the right of her upper lip. She just gave Liam a small smile but pushed past him towards Mark. "So Mark, how was your summer?"

Mark took a small step back as Shelby lurched closer towards him, "Fine Shelby, how was yours?"

"Oh you know, shopping in Paris with Daddy, and Milan, and Rome…" She looked like she was about to go into a full-out bragging spree when the bell rang. Mark quickly grabbed my arm and led me away to homeroom, and to escape from Shelby.

As we walked into the room, I saw Luella sitting with two seats empty in front of her. She waved me over and I took Mark with me. We sat down and put our stuff down.

Luella grinned and said, "Hey Annabeth… hi Mark."

Mark looked up, "Hi, Luella right?"

Luella blushed a little, "Um yeah…"

I felt the awkwardness starting, so I changed the subject. "So… what do we do in homeroom?"

Mark sighed, "Well we don't really do much of anything, we kind of get to know each other and chill out before our classes actually start."

Luella added, "Yeah, so tell us about yourself Annabeth."

"Umm, ok, " what do I say that isn't demigod related? "So I lived in New York since around the age of seven…"

Mark asked, "Where did you go to school?"

I bit my lip, "I- I was home schooled mostly."

Mark's eyes widened a bit, "Wow home schooled?"

I sighed, of course people would think I'm weird that I have never been to school before, I wish Percy was here, then I would have someone who really knew me.

Luella piped up, "So, what's it like living in New York?"

I smiled, "It's pretty busy, I love the city though, all the beautiful architecture…"

Mark said, "You really like architecture huh? Have you seen the Golden Gate Bridge yet, I can show you around this weekend if you'd like." He looked anxious for my reply.

I gave him a reassuring smile, "I have seen it actually, and that sounds great but my stepmom is taking me shopping this weekend…" I grimaced as Luella's face lit up.

"Wow shopping! That sounds like fun, you're lucky to have such nice parents."

I clenched my teeth a little, "Well she's my _step_mom actually, and I'm not big on shopping, but I really don't have any clothes with me…"

Mark smiled, "Well you look great."

Oh gods I'm starting to sense something with him, maybe I'm just imagining it, but I don't want to lead him on… I decided to let it go, I've only known him for a few hours, how could just meeting me make him think like that anyways? I laughed at myself in my head for thinking that and focused back in on the conversation.

Luella was telling Mark something about the book she was reading, he seemed pretty interested, I wasn't really listening by the time the bell rang for my next class. I said bye to them and walked out the door. I thought about everything, my ADHD and daughter of Athena do that to me. What did Aphrodite's visit mean? Will this nail polish ever come off? What will my teachers be like, or the kids at school? What's Percy thinking about? When can I talk to him? Where… am I going? I stopped in the hall and looked around for a minute until I located my first classroom, English.

I breezed through the beginning of the day, most of my teachers seemed nice, or probably just worried about my Dyslexia, I got a lot of questions about that. After English I had Science, then Math. Being a daughter of Athena helped me with those subjects, but I'm sure it will help even more with my next class, drawing, or as I consider it, time to work on my sketches. I hadn't known anyone in my other classes, but Luella's in this one so I was a little happy about that. Earlier I had seen Will and Mark in the hall and they said hi to me, it felt kind of good to be known.

I walked into the drawing room and took a seat at one of the large tables. The teacher was fussing around with lots of papers and pictures on her desk. She looked up at me, the only other person here, and smiled. She had her auburn hair in two buns with flowers in them, and big, red, cat-like glasses. She kind of reminded me of an older and kookier Rachel Dare.

"Hello there, I'm Ms. Karp, and you are?"

"Annabeth Chase, um, Ms. Karp, why is no one else here? Am I in the wrong room?"

"You're here for drawing right? If so, you're in the right place!"

"Yeah, but no one else is…"

"Oh, you must be new, hardly anyone takes drawing, all the girls take photography and the boys take athletics. Why I only have five people on my roster for today dear."

"Wow, well I hope you don't mind if I sketch on my own for a while…"

"I would love it! It's good to see some artistic initiative in this school!" She smiled wide and went back to shuffling through the mess on her desk. Just then Luella came rushing in, with three other girls behind her shortly.

"Sorry I'm late Ms. Karp!" Luella sat next to me, out of breath.

"It's ok Luella dear," Ms. Karp replied, not even looking up.

"The other three girls sat far from us, they all had on dark clothes and black fingernails, I smiled as I thought of Thalia, one of my best friends, she would've liked them. Luella smiled at me, "So Annabeth, what do you want to do now?"

"Actually Luella, I have some sketches I want to work on…"

She nodded her head, "Ok, that's cool, I'll read my book." She took out her book and read silently, I really liked her, and I was very excited to sketch.

I took out my sketchpad and started to draw, I drew and drew, completely focused. A few times I saw Luella look at the page with wide eyes, but I guess my seriousness turned her back to her book. After about half an hour I turned to a blank page, starting to draw Poseidon's statue. I put my pencil down on the paper and sighed. How was I going to do justice to my boyfriend's father in a statue? More importantly, how was I going to survive this school year without Percy? Just then Ms. Karp walked over and kneeled down beside Luella.

"Luella dear, are you coming for dinner tonight?"

Luella clenched her jaw and whispered quietly, "Yeah, um I'll see you later ok? Thanks."

Ms. Karp got up and said in a loud and enthusiastic voice, "So, Annabeth, what have you been drawing?"

I slowly turned the page of my sketchbook, reminded of the time when Rachel had announced to an entire coffee shop that Percy and I were demigods; I didn't think this would cause any valid suspicions…

As I turned the pages, explaining to her and Luella that it was what I imagine Mt. Olympus in Ancient Greek mythology would look like, they stared with awe. I smiled to myself, hopefully the gods like it as much as these mortals do… We parted ways when the bell rang and I headed off to gym class, Luella gave me a big hug and told me to meet her in the cafeteria for lunch.

I stepped into the locker room and put on my gym clothes, which were navy blue shorts and a white tee shirt. As my shirt was halfway over my head, I heard whispering around the corner of the shelves of lockers. I stashed my stuff in my locker and listened in.

_So what are you going to do, Shelby?_

_Girls, please, this is hardly an obstacle, that new girl what's-her-name with her fake blonde hair and her weird bead necklace is no competition for Mark._

_But, she's so pretty… I mean you're prettier of course but-_

_That's enough Caitlyn. Oh my god, will you guys stop freaking out! She's not even that pretty!_

_But everyone in school has been saying that she's gorg-_

_No. They're all idiots, and you're one too if you agree. Now put on your ugly blue sneakers Madison and lets get the hell out of this gross locker room._

I clenched my teeth angrily; who does she think she is? Not even Drew from camp is this mean and self-loving. I strapped my dagger to my upper thigh, hidden by my shorts and headed out the door. I cut them off as they left and shot them a dirty look that I knew would have them trembling, letting the door slam in their faces as I marched off to the gymnasium nearby.

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	5. Unbelievable in Every Way

**Hello world :) LONG CHAPTER WOO!  
I just wanted to thank you all for the reviews (once again) but as usual, I WANT MORE REVIEWS! No pressure :) I don't own PJO.**

**Here's the deal, this is my last update for 6 WEEKS! I'm going on vacation with no computer, sorry everyone! So I won't be able to update until mid-August.**

**REVIEW PLEASE! 3 **

**What some of the characters look like:**

** Mel: Hispanic with long, dark brown hair and dark eyes, average height.**

** Alice: Caucasian with strawberry blonde hair that's cut short, average height.**

** Marie: Caucasian with medium-length light brown straight hair, taller than average.**

** Tanner: Half black, with short curly hair and blue eyes, tall.**

** Miles: Asian with normal length black hair and dark eyes, tall.**

** Andre: Caucasian with short blonde hair and green eyes, tall.**

Chapter 5

Unbelievable in Every Way

Percy POV

_I looked at everyone, some were nodding, the girls smiled and awwwed. Except Mel, she looked down at her try, pushing a fry around with her fork. "She's that girl in the pictures in your locker, isn't she?"_

I tilted my head at Mel and spoke a little softer, "Uh, yeah, she is." What was that about? I kind of thought my friends would be happy I got a girlfriend, especially after all of the girls they've tried to set me up with last year.

Tanner laughed out loud, "C'mon guys, I'm with Andre, do you really think Percy actually has a girlfriend? Please, after all the gorgeous girls that have asked him out in the past? He's messing with us!"

I kicked him under the table and he yelled at me, throwing a fry in my face. I just smacked it up with my palm as it came towards me and caught it in my mouth; demigod reflexes at work. Marie and Alice clapped as Tanner sat back in his chair, his arms crossed. I laughed and said, "I'm not kidding, but I really don't care whether you believe me or not, it's still true."

Mel looked skeptical as she said, "But why didn't you tell us before? Is this just a way to get rid of Seraphina, cause if it is I _totally_ understand. Ugh she is annoying."

The entire table nodded their heads in agreement with their mouths full. I shook my head at her and smiled in an _I'm-done-with-this-conversation _sort of way, and we just continued to eat, talking about other things, mostly swim team tryouts, which are tomorrow, Friday the fourth. We also laughed about how Miles already got detention on the first day of school when he threw a paper airplane and it hit the principal, Ms. Liken, smack in between the eyes.

I thought to myself, so many thoughts racing in my head, it's my ADHD that does that. I had told my friends about Annabeth and they didn't believe me. I laughed at myself silently, I barely believed me, how did I end up with such an amazing girl? I'm unbelievably lucky, a little too unbelievable it seems. But I don't mind, just as long as they don't set me up on any more dates. I focused most of my thoughts on swim team tryouts. I was trying out for captain tomorrow, I wasn't worried about getting it, I was more worried about being _too _good. What if it attracted attention? I would have to tone down my skill with the mortals around. The rest of my thoughts, as usual, were on Annabeth. I was excited to call her after school, even if I had to wait a few hours for her to get out of her new school, I think the name starts with an H, Ho- something… oh right, it's Hoover High, like the Hoover dam. I bit my lip, remembering my visit to the Hoover Dam and the circumstances around it. I tried to put it out of my mind when the bell rang. I said goodbye to my friends and headed to my next class, Foreign Language, in which I was lucky enough to be taking Greek, a language I am already fluent in.

I walked into the class and took a desk in the middle of the room. The rest of the class came in; none of my friends were here because they all took easier languages, like Spanish of French. The teacher, Mr. Douglas, did not look like he would be fluent in Greek; he was a very young guy with long-ish blonde hair and a tattoo on his shoulder. I was interested to see how this class would go. He made some jokes and asked us to do some icebreakers, to get to know each other. After I talked to some junior who failed this class last year and a sophomore girl who kept batting her eyes at me, he started his lesson.

"So, don't hate me, but I am required to give you guys a test," there were outbursts of 'no!' and moaning, "don't worry, it's not graded, it's just to see how much Greek you know, even if you don't know any at all."

The class calmed down a bit at that statement and quieted as Mr. Douglas handed out the test papers. Now usually in other classes this would be the time that I swallowed my hopes and faced the fact that I was going to fail. But as he handed me the paper, I smiled. I could easily answer all of the questions, whether about translating or grammar, it was easier than a test in English for me. Not only that, but I finished in about ten minutes, while the rest of the class took three times as long. When I finished I brought the test over to the teacher's desk.

He looked up surprised and said, "Oh, is there a typo or something?"

I rubbed the back of my neck and said quietly, "Uh no, I- I finished."

Mr. Douglas smiled and tilted his head, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah…"

He nodded his head in an _I-didn't-expect-that_ kind of way and then took my paper to grade. I was about to go back to my seat when he stopped me and said, "Wait here, this will only take a minute."

I stood there silently, rolling the beads on my camp necklace and patted my pocket to make sure riptide was there, of course it was. Mr. Douglas looked up, his eyebrows high. "Percy, you got a perfect score, how do you know Greek so well? I assume from this that it was your first language."

I shrugged, "Actually no, I just started learning Greek around when I was twelve… at my summer camp."

"But- you're fluent! That's impressive man; it took me seven years and living in Greece for four of those years to become fluent. You've got serious talent."

I smiled, a little embarrassed and gave a short laugh, "Thanks Mr. Douglas."

"I mean it Percy, it's great to have you in my class. Now you'd better sit down, some of the other students are finishing. Great work."

I smiled back at him as I sat down at my desk. So this is what Annabeth feels like all the time, hopefully she's doing well in her new school. I sat there until the bell rang and packed my things up, once again. It was only the first day and I'm already sick and tired of school. Next class was a free period, so I just hung around in the courtyard outside. I didn't have any homework, since it was the first day, so I just relaxed in the grass. I was going to text Annabeth but she would probably get mad at me if her phone went off in class, so I decided not to. Instead I texted Rachel, who certainly wouldn't mind a little distraction from class.

_Hey, what r u doing now?_

She answered in a few minutes… _Sitting in French class, how 'bout u?_

_I have a free now :)_

_Lucky… we don't have free periods, it's all 'how to be a lady 101' and 'introduction to: my father is richer than yours'_

_Lol that sounds awful… Well here's some news, I got a visit from a god today._

_Ooooh which one?_

_Lets just say she cared more about my love life than the state of Olympus._

_Ugh Aphrodite._

_Wow how'd you guess? Haha_

_My epic oracle powers of deduction of course. Btw, I still haven't had a green-fog episode if u know what I mean…_

_Lol good, wouldn't want them to lock u up for insanity_

_Haha very funny Mr. Blow-up-every-school-I've-been-to! Oh good news Perce, I might be able to visit u this weekend, for us it's a three day weekend and my dad said he wouldn't mind if I came into the city._

_Cool, I've got no plans, can't wait to see u!_

_U 2, ok I g2g, my teacher is glaring at me! Bye ;)_

I thought about calling Nico, who may or may not be in the Underworld, he's been all over the place lately, spending most of his time down there or crashing on my couch. I decided not to, I didn't want Persephone to yell at him again for talking on his cell phone. Instead I flipped my phone shut and walked back inside, heading to my next class, Elective. For this class you would normally get to pick one of three subjects to study, but if you're on a sports team, you're allowed to use this time for practice. I walked into the locker room and changed into my swim trunks, they were dark blue with a lighting bolt on the side, a present from Thalia, who is probably on some great adventure with the Hunters of Artemis right now, while I'm stuck in school. I slammed my locker shut and turned the corner, hitting a wall of muscle, but instead of me falling backwards, the guy that I had hit stumbled forwards, propelled by my Curse-of-Achilles strength. He brushed himself off and turned around, his face scrunched in anger, it was Spencer Roan, captain of the football team, he was in his football uniform and looked ready to pummel me, little did he know I was invincible.

He growled at me, with his pack of jock friends behind me and said, "Watch where you're going Jackson, just cause you're on the swim team doesn't make you any less of a loser. What are you wearing anyways? A freakin' necklace! Don't be such a pussy." His idiot friends sounded shouts of approval.

I just shook my head and pushed past them, I didn't want to deal with them, and I didn't want to hurt them, even if they deserved it. I slammed the locker room door and walked into the pool facility, where some of the team was practicing. Miles, Tanner and Andre were all there, they waved me over. I said hi, Miles made a joke, and then we heard a whistle blow.

I turned around to see our coach standing in front of us, with a clipboard in hand and a whistle in his mouth. "Ok guys, tryouts are tomorrow, all of you here are already on the team, so the only people trying out will be those of you who want to be captain, or kids who want to be on the team and aren't already. I will decide who gets in for both of those categories. Come over here if you want to try out for captain, the rest of you: get back to practicing! We have to show up those snobs at McKafferny Academy next week at the meet, ok?"

He blew his whistle and everyone started getting busy. I walked over to him, along with about four other guys, all who I knew were pretty great swimmers. We put our names on a list and then our coach sent us back to work. It felt so good to get in the water. The first thing I did was sit at the bottom for a second and just breath, something any mortal wouldn't be able to do. Then I swam to the top and started doing laps, I got faster and faster, feeling incredibly free. After who knows how many laps I got a reality check and decided to turn down the speed, I was probably going faster than humanly possible. I got out of the pool to see some faces with wide eyes, but I avoided them. I headed over to my friends, who immediately told me I was a shoe in for captain. I smiled at them and talked while we lifted weights in the corner until the bell rang.

The final period of the day was Gym, so I went back to the locker room and changed from my swim trunks to my gym clothes, which were basketball shorts and my Camp Half-Blood t-shirt that I brought. I went to the gymnasium and saw the rest of the class there, I sat down while the teacher called attendance. I heard Mel's name called and I turned to see her wave at me from across the mob of students.

I smiled back at her as the teacher spoke, "So today we will be playing dodge ball, I assume you all know how to play, so lets get to it." He separated us off into teams, I wasn't on Mel's team, so we couldn't talk, she seemed like she had something to say. My team was mostly girls, who all looked at me like _you-know-you're-gonna-lead-us-right?_ The other team had a lot of jocks, it didn't really seem fair. I looked at Mel and she smirked at me competitively, getting ready to run for the balls lined up in the center of the gym floor. The teacher blew the whistle and we all rushed forward, I grabbed two, one for blocking and one for throwing. The game went on for a couple of minutes, I tried to save most of my team by catching the balls, but I was also focused on getting the other team out. Eventually it was just me against fifteen other players, including Mel.

The teacher blew his whistle and said, "Ok Jackson, it seems like you've lost. Lets just play this out until you get hit, hmmm? He sat back down and started reading a magazine, realizing a few seconds later that we were waiting for him to blow his whistle. He did and I scurried back, dodging the rain of balls that were immediately thrown at me. I heard my teammates cheering and decided to go for the win. I grabbed two balls and threw them at the same time, in different directions, getting two people out. Then I launched lots of extremely fast flying balls at them, close to their feet so they wouldn't get hurt. Lastly it was just Mel versus me, it wasn't a big surprise, she's on the track team and is very athletic. I threw two balls at her but she dodged them both. She threw one at me, and I did the same. As I bent down to pick up a ball rolling away, I sensed one flying at my back. I heard the other team start to cheer as it flew towards me, my head still down. I instantly stuck my arm backwards, behind my back, and caught it in mid-air. The cheering turned to shock as I raised my head and smiled, my team going nuts. Mel came over to shake my hand, looking surprised and not at all mad.

"That was amazing Percy. You're amazing."

I rubbed the back of my neck, "Uh- thanks Mel, great game."

She smiled wide, "Definitely one for the books."

We parted ways as the bell rang and I went to change. As I left the school building I felt a familiar presence near me. Standing by the gates was Aphrodite, now in a Greek dress with a golden belt and crown, clearly invisible to the unnoticing mortals around her. She was far away but I could see her shake her head, rolling her eyes and smiled.

She whispered but I could hear it clearly in my ears, "_You are so oblivious to women Percy Jackson."_

I was about to say something back when she disappeared in the blink of an eye. I wished she wouldn't be so cryptic. But apparently I didn't understand most women, let alone a goddess. I rolled my eyes, ignoring the weird encounter and headed home, my mom told me to come straight home for some reason, and I needed to waste the few hours before I could call Annabeth anyways, I missed her so much. I wondered how things were going for her in San Francisco.

**As I said earlier, this is my last update for 6 WEEKS. Look again in mid-August. Or even better, subscribe and favorite and REVIEW!**

**Who can guess what Aphrodite meant when she visited Percy the second time?**

**Who can guess the exciting twist that will happen in San Francisco? It's a big deal guys! I sort of hinted at it already (here's a clue: it's not what you think).**

**Who can guess where I'm going for vacation? It's two countries; one of them is a big tourist attraction this summer! :)**

**Anyways, enough about me. I hope you liked the chapter, it will get more exciting, I promise. I'll also sort of fast forward more through their days, but it's the first day, so I wanted to be descriptive. Who's excited for Annabeth to come? I am!**

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! How nice would it be if I came home to lots and lots of reviews? I love you all, sorry I'm without internet for 6 weeks, don't think I gave up!**


	6. There's Something Suspicious About Love

**I'M BACK EVERYBODY! Sorry for the long wait, all of the great reviews really motivated me!**

**Now I know most of you WANT ANNABETH TO COME (getting your attention) to Percy's school soon, and she will, just wait a few more chapters, I promise!**

**I don't own PJO!**

Chapter 6

There's Something Suspicious About Love

Annabeth POV

_I stepped into the locker room and put on my gym clothes, which were navy blue shorts and a white tee shirt. As my shirt was half-way over my head, I heard whispering around the corner of the shelves of lockers. I stashed my stuff in my locker and listened in._

_So what are you going to do, Shelby?_

_Girls, please, this is hardly an obstacle, that new girl what's-her-name with her fake blonde hair and her weird bead necklace is no competition for Mark._

_But, she's so pretty… I mean you're prettier of course but-_

_That's enough Caitlyn. Oh my god will you guys stop freaking out! She's not even that pretty!_

_But everyone in school has been saying that she's gorg-_

_No. They're all idiots, and you're one too if you agree. Now put on your ugly blue sneakers Madison and lets get the hell out of this gross locker room._

_I clenched my teeth angrily; who does she think she is? Not even Drew from camp is this mean and self-loving. I strapped my dagger to my upper thigh, hidden by my shorts and headed out the door. I cut them off as they left and shot them a dirty look that I knew would have them trembling, letting the door slam in their faces as I marched off to the gymnasium nearby._

As I sat down on the bleachers, I looked around me, twirling with my outstanding gray streak of hair, something I do when I'm thinking about Percy. I heard the screech of sneakers near me and felt the shuffle of people slide in and sit next to me on the bench. I didn't turn to see who it was, I was focused on trying to not kill those mean girls who judged me and talked about me behind my back before even meeting me. But I guessed that's just the kind of people they are, and I'm glad I have nothing to do with them. But clearly they can't take the hint that my death glare should have expressed, because at that moment I felt a light tap on my left shoulder. I slowly turned to see Shelby smiling at me with her posse peeking over their shoulders at us.

Shelby said sweetly, "Hi, Annabeth right?"

"Yeah… or you can call me what's-her-name with the fake blonde hair and the weird bead necklace." I glared at her and then stood up to move seats.

She grabbed my arm as I turned and I was about to smack it off before I composed myself and whispered in her ear, "_Don't touch me ever again, got it?"_

She shrunk a little but replied with a forced sneer, "Stay away from Mark, _Annabeth_, he's mine."

"I'm not interested in Mark, _Shelby_, he's just a friend."

Shelby smiled insincerely just as the gym teacher blew her whistle.

The teacher shouted, "Okay you all, sit down." I unfortunately had no time to change seats and so I sat down next to Shelby.

"You may call me Coach Thorn, welcome to Physical Education. That's right, I said Physical Education, not _gym class_. Do you know why?" She looked around the room, daring anyone to answer.

I heard a guy behind me whisper to his friend, _I heard Coach Thorn is the hardest teacher in school, for gym that is. No one ever gets above an 80 unless you impress her._ I got nervous, I need all A's, there is no other option. I hoped I could impress this teacher.

Coach Thorn continued, "It's because this is a real subject, you will get real grades. This is not some free period for you to slack off in and chitchat with your friends. Got it?"

There was a murmured and disjointed 'Yes Coach Thorn' from the masses. She then blew her whistle and started separating us into teams for soccer. The rest of class was actually fun. As luck would have it, sitting next to Shelby had its advantages; I was on a different team than her. Of course my team won, I've played a little soccer at camp and easily led my team to victory through strategy and skills. At the end of class we started to head to the locker rooms, I turned to see Coach Thorn smile at me and give me a thumbs up.

Next I had lunch, I made sure to avoid Shelby as I changed in the locker room and made my way over to the cafeteria. I walked into the giant room, it was buzzing with conversation. As I scanned the cafeteria for anyone I knew, I noticed heads turning to me, whispers of my name. I shrugged off the attention and suddenly felt a hand brush behind me and an arm rest on my shoulder. I turned to see Mark smiling at me with Will and Liam behind him laughing.

"You lost?"

I laughed and lightly took his arm off of my shoulder, "Hi guys."

"Here, come sit with us." Mark dragged me to an empty table in the middle of the room and we put our stuff down.

We all walked to the food line together and bought our lunch. I got some salad and fruit, the lasagna they were serving looked a little sketchy. As we headed back to the table, I saw Luella walk into the Cafeteria. I waved her over so she would know where we were sitting.

Luella came over with her food and quietly pulled a chair in next to me. "So Annabeth, how were your classes so far?"

I smiled, thinking about my day, "They're great, I like all of my teachers."

Will drummed his hands on the table and then said, "So, Luella, are you new here too?"

Luella practically whispered, "Um no…"

Will bit his lip and Mark bumped him with his shoulder, "Oh sorry," he replied.

I knew how Luella felt, I am always used to being the outsider. But I don't mind, I like doing my own thing. Besides that awkward moment, the rest of lunch was fun. I didn't expect to make good friends so soon. But no matter the company I had, there was still one person I wished was here, my boyfriend. As usual, I missed Percy. But I also had a million things buzzing in my mind, especially my encounter this morning with Aphrodite. Something about it seemed off. I couldn't figure it out, but I would. I don't let questions go unanswered.

Luella and I walked to French class and sat down next to each other. We still had ten minutes until class started. We were alone so I decided to bring up something that had been gnawing at me.

"Luella, I was wondering why Ms. Karp asked if you were going to have dinner with her?"

She sighed and replied, "Well, truthfully, most nights I have dinner at Ms. Karp's house."

"Why?"

"My dad works a lot, and… my mom left us when I was a baby. So he doesn't really have time to eat with me." She shuffled herself around to face me, "Don't get me wrong, I don't mind making my own dinner. But when Ms. Karp invited me over one night last year, it just kind of became a tradition… but could you not tell people? They already think I'm a geek, if it was out that I hang out with a teacher…"

I put my hand on hers as she looked down at the ground. "This may sound crazy, but I know exactly how you feel."

She looked up, "Please, how could that be true? Annabeth, you are perfect. You're pretty, smart and funny. On your first day here you have more friends, _popular_ friends even, than I have with a year on my belt. I'm not saying I'm jealous, I- I'm so glad we're starting to be friends. But I don't think you get what being me is like."

I shook my head, I couldn't believe she was saying this, "Well first of all, I promise you I am much more of a geek than you, you haven't seen anything today, I am a big nerd, I swear." She laughed.

I smiled and continued, less happily, "Second of all, I ran away from home when I was seven. I have practically been without my father ever since. This is one of the first times I've ever been living with my family."

Luella's face was full of surprise and confusion. "You ran away? Where did you go? What about your real mother, I thought you lived with your step mom?"

I laughed; my life is pretty confusing, especially when you have to skip over all of the demigod stuff. "I made some friends in the same situation. And I found a home with them. And my mother, well, that's complicated. But lets just say I've known her only a little more than you've known yours."

Luella gave a small smile and nodded. Just then the bell rang and kids filed into the classroom. The teacher, a short and sweet looking brunette lady came in and smiled at the class.

She said, trying to shout over the buzzing room. "Welcome class, to French, level one. Now being in this class, this means none of you have taken French before. But have any of you been exposed to the language?"

Some hands went up and we discussed their trips to France or going to a French restaurant. The only exposure to French that I ever had was when passing the Aphrodite cabin. Children of the love goddess instantly know French, much like other demigods know Greek. I'm glad to take a language I don't know, I want to learn as much as I can. I laughed in my head; this is unlike Percy who eagerly takes Greek because he can do well in the class, rather than challenging himself. But that's why I call him seaweed brain. Halfway through the class, the teacher, Ms. Chandonnet, silenced everyone.

She said, "Okay, enough of the fun," she giggled and whispered to us, _sorry_, "But unfortunately, we should start with the basics of French." The class started to moan but she put her hand up sternly.

She started to teach and ask us questions. I was taking notes when I noticed a look on Luella's face, her eyes looked lit up and she was smiling. Then she began to answer every single question perfectly, she seemed very confident.

As we walked out of class I lightly punched her in the shoulder. Well, it seemed light to me, she took a second to recover. When she turned to me with a questioning but friendly look, I shot one right back.

"Why are you in the beginner level of French if you know it so well?"

She laughed and shook her head. "Truthfully, I didn't know I knew it so well. My father always told me my mother spoke French to me, maybe I just… I don't know… remembered it?"

"Well, it's true that the best time in life to learn a language is childhood, doctors and language experts have stipulated that-"

She started laughing, "Maybe you really are a nerd!"

I laughed with her and then had to make my way over to history class. We were learning about ancient civilizations. That class was a breeze, not only that, but the subject is really interesting. I went to my locker at the end of the day feeling good about school, other than a certain bottle blonde and her posse of mean girls. I walked to the locker and saw Mark, Will and Liam talking. I said hi and grabbed my books that I needed for the little homework that I had tonight. As I was about to leave school, I saw Mark run after me. I turned and he pushed and held the door open for me.

I looked at him with a surprised face and said, "Thanks."

He smiled and just shrugged. As I walked by, with him on my trail, I felt a little awkward.

I started walking toward the trolley but he hurriedly ran up to me. He stepped in front of me and rubbed the back of his neck, something Percy always does when he's nervous. He looked like he was about to say something and I had a feeling what it was.

I bit my lip and stepped to the side, "Look Mark, I need to get home…"

He put his hands in his pockets, looking at his sneakers and said, "Well okay, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

I replied, "Um yeah, see you then."

I waved goodbye and headed home. The fog was coming in and I felt like working on my sketches so I walked as quickly as possible. When I walked in the house, my stepmother, Helen, was at the dining table reading a magazine and cutting out coupons from a newspaper. She turned to me but I rushed up the stairs.

As I was out of sight I heard her yell, "Welcome home Annabeth!" in a tone that really said, _why didn't you say hello to me?_

I sighed and shuffled, annoyed, into my room. I plopped my stuff down and lay on my bed. Somehow this day has gone from good to… well I was not as happy as before. But I knew how to change that. I rolled over onto my stomach and pulled my cell phone out of my back pocket. I hit 1 on the speed dial and bit the beads on my necklace as I heard the ringing sound.

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**ANNABETH WILL JOIN PERCY SOON, JUST KEEP READING!**

**For those of you who guessed, the countries I was in were Spain and England :)**

**Stay tuned for Percy's chapter next!**

**I know this chapter wasn't very eventful, but it will get more exciting, and this time I mean it!**

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	7. Surprises and Slip ups

**OH MY GODS. LONGEST CHAPTER EVER? I THINK SO.**

**So I would like to thank all of my reviewers, I would never have thought that I would make it to 100 REVIEWS! YAY! Now I'm wishing for 200, can you help me out? Haha anyways, sorry for the long wait, I was touring colleges. Plus this chapter is so freaking long. I WAS GOING TO SPLIT IT INTO 2 CHAPTERS, but I felt bad about prolonging the Percabeth reunion any further. So that means longer chapters until she arrives I guess!**

**SPOILERS: **Who else is super duper happy that Piper and Jason are together in the Demigod Diaries? Go Jiper! Plus Percy and Annabeth's date? So freaking cute! Anywho…

**The new cover picture is by **jujubajulia on deviantart, **she is an amazing artist with adorable Percabeth scenes, check her out! **If any of you have a deviantart account (I don't) you should direct her to this story…

Chapter 7

Surprises and Slip-ups

Percy POV

_She whispered but I could hear it clearly in my ears, _"You are so oblivious to women Percy Jackson."_ I was about to say something back when she disappeared in the blink of an eye. I wished she wouldn't be so cryptic. But apparently I didn't understand most women, let alone a goddess. I rolled my eyes, ignoring the weird encounter and headed home, my mom told me to come straight home for some reason, and I needed to waste the few hours before I could call Annabeth anyways, I missed her so much. I wondered how things were for her in San Francisco._

Paul works late so I usually walk home, it's about a 20 minute walk but I actually enjoy it. That is, when I'm not being hunted by monsters. Today was not one of those enjoyable days. As I headed uptown on 2nd avenue, I got a feeling that I knew all too well; a feeling that got me itching to uncap the magical pen sitting in my pocket and kick some monster butt so I could get some peace. But I wasn't at Camp Half-Blood anymore, there were mortals around and a monster that, first of all, I wasn't even sure was actually following me, and second of all, could cause a lot of damage.

Remember how I said that a monster might not even be following me? Well there was. And at that moment I heard a cackle in my ear. I instantly uncapped Riptide and turned around to see two unwanted guests standing in front of me, arms crossed. It was Kelli, an Empousa that I had already fought about a year ago and her trainee Tammi.

I rolled my eyes, "Come back for more?"

Kelli snarled and replied, "I hope you didn't think that because you gave a little 'good will' to Hecate in your bargain at Olympus that we would forget about last time Jackson. We've come for you and things won't end well."

I laughed and stepped forward, causing them to take the smallest step back, "You're right, they won't. This is ridiculous, do you actually think that-"

Kelli screamed, "I don't forget when I'm wronged! You will pay!"

I clenched my teeth angrily, I had a really good comeback and she totally cut me off! She lunged towards me and I heard some mortal lady scream. I don't know what she saw but I'd guess something like two nice, pretty girls being faced down by some wild boy with a baseball bat.

As Kelli attacked I stepped away and swiped at Tammi, who was obviously going at me from the side while I was distracted. She screamed for a second before all that was left was a pile of dust.

Kelli yelled some ancient curse word at me that I didn't bother listening to. I blinked and suddenly I was staring at a beautiful girl who was smiling at me, coming towards me and laughing. She seemed so nice and friendly. She got closer, she was so convincing, I don't even know what she was saying, only that it felt so right to obey. Then I heard a sharp clatter on the ground as I was brought back to reality by the sound of my sword falling to the pavement. _Vlakas_, she tricked me again like last year! Now I was really angry, and there would be no remorse, even if she was a girl monster. She smiled at me, right in my face, our noses practically touching as she was about to bite my neck. I took a swift step back, catching her by surprise, and just flat out punched her in the face. It's not my normal fighting style, but my sword was on the ground and I had to act fast. She staggered back, my Achilles Curse strength caused her to tumble backwards, into the street. I grabbed my sword off the ground and saw out of the corner of my eye she was starting to turn into flame, just like last time. I quickly swiped at her as she burst into fire. I didn't think I got her for a second, but as I held out my hand, yellow dust floated into it in the breeze.

I smiled until I looked straight ahead to see my lab partner, Lucy Lai, standing outside of a corner deli, a half bitten apple on the ground by her foot, her eyes as wide as possible. I'm pretty sure I just stood there for a second, my eyes wide too. Then I slowly capped riptide and put it in my pocket. I looked back at her, hoping she had left, but she was still standing there. So I just smiled at her and made a dash for it in the other direction. Maybe not my best plan, or my most polite, but it got my out of the situation nonetheless.

After about four blocks I slowed down to walking pace, trying to assess what just happened. I wasn't sure what Lucy thought she saw. But from experience I've decided that ignorance is bliss. I'll just have to avoid her, I didn't want to be mean like that, but I was done answering questions about the crazy stuff that seems to happen around me. I continued walking a few blocks then turned the corner and jogged up the steps to my building door. We lived in one of those apartment buildings without a doorman, where you have a key for both the building and the apartment. I rummaged through my backpack, trying to feel for my keys. I sighed and sat down on the steps, actually looking in the bag now. Then I noticed a light coming from the inside, my phone was ringing. I quickly grabbed and answered.

_Hello?_

I heard my mom on the other end, _Percy, where are you? I told you to come straight home._

_I'm outside of the building mom, looking for my keys._

She laughed, _Ok, see you soon sweetie._

When she hung up I was left wondering why on earth I had to come home so quickly. I finally found my keys at the bottom of the bag and hurried upstairs, excited about finding out why my mom was acting so weirdly.

When I turned the lock I slowly opened the door and heard a loud "SURPRISE!" from inside. I looked into my living room to find Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, one of my closest friends, my cousin, and an immortal Hunter of Artemis standing in front of me. I smiled and laughed, giving her a big hug.

"Thalia! What are you doing here?"

"_Nice to see you too_ Kelp Head!" She punched me lightly in the arm but then instantly pulled away and shook out her hand, "Ouch! I keep forgetting you're invincible. Anyway, the hunters are in the city for about a day while Artemis is meeting at Olympus."

"Will you be here tomorrow?"

"Yeah, and your mom was saying that I could go to your school for the day, it'd be cool to go to a normal high school while my friends are still my age."

I laughed as we walked into my room and sat down, "Yeah I get it, that sounds great!"

Thalia looked the same as always, literally. The not aging thing was still kind of weird. She was wearing all black, expect for her silver belt and jewelry, most importantly her shield/bracelet, Aegis. She had that immortal glow too, like she was emitting this energy that might burn you to a crisp, god style. We talked for a while about her adventures over the last few months. The hunters go all over fighting monsters. It would be a pretty great gig if it wasn't for the 'no boys allowed' rule. While I did my homework she watched some action movie on my computer. Some hours later my mom called us in for dinner. In the middle of my spaghetti I heard my phone ringing in my room.

I muttered, "Oh shoot!" And made a mad dash to answer it.

I quickly looked at the caller I.D. and then said, "Hey"

I heard a cute laugh on the other end, "Percy, I miss you."

I sighed and replied, "I miss you so much Annabeth. I can't believe it's been a whole day without talking to you! How did I survive?" I laid down on my bed and put my feet up.

She laughed again, "I ask myself that everyday, you being such a seaweed brain and all, it's a wonder you survived today without me watching your back!"

I smiled, "Hey I'm not that hopeless, as a matter of fact I killed two monsters today! They _were_ only angry Empousai…"

"Hah! I bet my encounter with Aphrodite today was scarier than that!"

"She visited you too? She came into my math class and appeared after school."

"Really? Well I guess that makes sense, we did talk about you."

I shook my head, "Oh gods what did she say?" From the kitchen I heard my mom yell, _Percy your food's getting cold!_ I yelled back, holding the phone to my chest, _Be there in a minute!_

Annabeth said, "Sorry, I didn't know you were having dinner. But anyway, she didn't really say much. Just how we are on opposite sides of the continent and how she would help… I don't know. The one thing that stood out was something with my friend."

I was confused, "What friend? What happened?"

Annabeth seemed indecisive, "Her name's Luella. Well… I'm not entirely sure. Actually, you might be able to help. Percy, when Aphrodite visited you, could the mortals see her?"

I replied, "No, they acted like she wasn't even there." Annabeth seemed to be thinking about that, I didn't want to stop the conversation but I had to go eat. "Annabeth I should probably get back to dinner, oh hey did you know Thalia's here?"

"She is?! My two best friends are together and I'm not there? This sucks."

I laughed, "Hey I thought we were a little more than friends!"

"Oh shut up Seaweed Brain, you know what I mean!" I heard a murmur on the other line and then Annabeth spoke again, "You get back to dinner, I have to do my homework anyway."

"Okay, bye Wise Girl."

She responded sweetly, "I'll text you later. Bye Percy."

I heard the click on the other line as the call ended, so I went back to my seat. Everyone was eating dessert, blue chocolate chip cookies. Thalia was a little pissed that she didn't get to talk to Annabeth, but the cookies helped calm her wrath. After dinner, Thalia and I decided to walk around the city. We ended up at F. A. O. Shwartz for some reason and had just enough time to play on the floor keyboard before it closed. As we were leaving something caught my eye and I quickly bought it at the checkout counter while the cashier not-so-subtly was hinting to us that it was time to leave. We took the 6 train up to the stop near my house and went to sleep. I slept on the couch and she slept in my bed.

The next morning was funny. Thalia, though excited to go to a normal high school for a day, did not like to wake up early. By the time we made it to school I couldn't have counted the number of times she complained. As we walked up to the school building I started to get a little nervous. I had told Thalia about the monster attack yesterday, including the part about Lucy. She had told me to pretend like it never happened, which had been my original plan. I was still wondering if it was better to avoid the truth than to lie. Or is it the same thing? This is why I need Annabeth, for mind-numbing questions like this. Whatever the answer I still didn't even know what she thought she saw, so it didn't really matter. We walked up to my friends who were chatting in our regular spot.

When they turned some of their eyes bugged a little, I guess Thalia wasn't what you would call a normal high-schooler, or a normal girl for that matter.

I broke the silence, "Hey guys, this is one of my best friends, Thalia Grace."

After she got acquainted with everyone and my awkward friends stopped staring at her, she seemed to fit in nicely. Well Tanner still kind of kept staring at her in a really obvious way, my punch in his arm woke him up from the 'Thalia daze' he was in. As we walked in the halls together the whispers and rumors kept growing. I heard some people say she was my girlfriend, others said she was my sister, that one wasn't too far off base. But I was used to the attention, and so was she. We're demigods, people stare, they scream, they attack, and they run away; but what can you do?

Speaking of the devil, at that moment Thalia and I walked into my science class, where a certain human was sitting at our desk, biting her nails. As we walked up to Lucy, she noticed me and looked like she was about to say something urgent. I quickly said, "Hey Lucy, this is my cousin Thalia, she's going to be sitting with us today."

Lucy sighed and said quietly, "Percy, I really need to talk to you. _Alone_."

Thalia shuffled over to Marie and Tanner's table at the sound of that. I replied, "What about?"

She looked a little pissed, "About yesterday of course! When I saw you after school… it looked like-"

"Oh yeah, when you saw me talking to some of the cheerleaders from Goode."

"But they- "

I interrupted, "Yeah?" Oh gods forgive me I was being a major jerk playing dumb like this, but there was no other choice at the moment.

She shook her head and said quietly, "Nevermind… I must have just… whatever."

The rest of class was insanely awkward, but other than that the day was going great so far. Having Thalia next to me in every class made it a lot of fun, plus I had someone to talk to about the demigod stuff in my life. We kept cracking up and everyone stared.

Our inside jokes were clearly getting annoying because right before we all sat down at lunch together, Mel said, "Okay, no more inside jokes until you explain them!" The entire table agreed so we just sat down and I sighed.

"Fine. No more jokes. But it's hard to turn down my hilarious personality!" Everyone laughed and I got a fry in my face again, I hope this wasn't becoming a daily routine.

Thalia said with a serious face but holding in a smile, "Kelp head, they're not laughing with you, they're laughing at you." At that everyone laughed, including me.

After we calmed down, Miles asked, "So how long have you guys known eachother?"

Thalia said nonchalantly, "We're actually cousins… didn't Percy tell you?"

They shook their heads.

I turned to Thalia, "Okay, okay, sorry for the miscommunication. But it's not like we've known each other our whole lives," I turned to Miles, "The first time I saw her I was twelve years old, but she looked a little different back then. She had this whole nature phase going on." Thalia practically did a spit take when I said that. I was holding in a laugh while the others looked confused.

She had her palm on her face, "Oh gods you are officially stupider than Nico. I literally cannot believe you just said that."

Marie whined a little, "But seriously guys, how come you didn't meet before then, you're cousins!"

Thalia put her hand over my mouth to stop me from continuing and said, "Our parents don't get along most of the time, we _actually_ met a year later, when this weirdo over here," she pointed her thumb at me, "was thirteen. We go to the same summer camp."

Andre stood up and pointed his finger to the ceiling, "Aha! That must mean you know Percy's 'girlfriend.'" He put air quotes around girlfriend. "So is she real or not?"

Thalia actually did a spit take that time and couldn't stop laughing for a minute, in between laughs she managed to say, "They don't believe your girlfriend in real?"

I crossed my arms and pouted, "It's not funny Thals!"

After she calmed down she looked at them with a straight face, finally I was going to get the proof I needed. She said clearly, "Of course he's lying, who would want to date this Kelp Head?" There were cheers from the group, who assumed they had been proved right. I groaned and slid farther into my seat.

She whispered in my ear, "_That _was for the'nature phase' comment."

Of course she said I didn't have a girlfriend, what was I expecting? Why in Hades would anything go my way? I forgave her eventually, we are family after all. But for some odd reason, when we went outside during my free period and it was drizzling, she got a little wetter than most people. Must have been some freak weather storm or something…

I was sure I was going to get electrocuted spontaneously for that, but she just put her hand out and said, "Truce?"

I shook it and smiled, "Truce." Feeling bad, when I touched her hand I dried her off and she grinned happily.

During my elective period in which I had swim practice, Thalia went to a metalworking class with Alice. After an easy half an hour of laps, Tanner pulled me aside.

"So… do you think I have a shot with your cousin if I asked her out? She is super hot."

I almost laughed but that would have been mean, "Sorry man, Thalia does _not_ date."

He looked annoyed, "Darn it, there are no dateable girls in this school!" He said that a little too loud and I heard snickers in the background.

"Oh come on, that's not true. What about…" I thought for a second, trying to think of a girl in Goode that would be a good match for Tanner. Then it struck me, "Duh, what about Mel? She's nice."

Just then the bell rang and we picked up our stuff to go change.

He shook his head and held in a smile, "It's pretty clear she likes someone else." As he walked away towards the locker room I heard him say under his breath, "_Along with every other girl in school_…"

Ok, so maybe my ability to read girls wasn't my best skill. I decided to leave matchmaking to the Aphrodite and went to go change.

At the end of the day we were at my locker talking to Mel, who seemed much happier than usual. She asked, "So are you guys going home now?"

"I have swim team tryouts."

Thalia groaned, "Ugh yawn. How many times do I have to see you swim? It's like the only thing you do."

"Besides saving your life."

"Well my life is quite safe now, thanks though." She mumbled something about 'stupid boys' while Mel looked confused.

"Do you guys always fight like this?"

We said in unison, "Pretty much."

I dragged Thalia to the tryouts and sat her down in the bleachers. "Now stay here and don't move until I'm done." I said in a jokingly patronizing tone.

She replied, "Yes master," and then she bowed.

I laughed as I walked down to the pool. I went to the other side of the gym where the rest of the guys were trying out for captain were. I pulled off my pants and shirt, having already put my swim trunks on earlier, and put them in my bag, taking a seat on the bench while the coach started timing the other swimmers individually. Right before he called me, I looked up and waved at Thalia, she waved back, but I saw Lucy Lai sitting beside her on the bench, in her bathing suit. I had forgotten she was tying out for the team. Thalia turned back to talk to Lucy and I got nervous, what were they talking about?

I heard my name and got into the diving position at the end of the pool. I heard the coach say 'Go!' and I went into action. We had to do 6 laps, I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing; I was at home in the water. When I touched back at the edge of the pool, something told me I was done with the 6 laps, even though I hadn't been counting. I climbed out and looked at my coach. His eyes were wide; he clenched the stopwatch tightly, looking at me then back at the screen a few times. I looked to Thalia anxiously and she glared back at me in a way that said _Percy, you idiot_. I felt a hand on my shoulder as the coach pulled me aside to talk.

"Percy, do you know how fast you just swam?"

Too fast. "Um… no?"

"Around a third of the world record."

_Di immortales!_ "Uh… Sorry?"

"Sorry? This is GREAT! We are going to kick those McKafferny creeps into next Tuesday!"

Weird saying, but at least he wasn't freaked out. I really should have been more careful. "Ok cool," is all I really had to say.

The coach held up his clipboard and called everyone trying out to come closer. Even though there were two more guys who hadn't even swam yet, he put his arm on my shoulder and said simply, "Jackson here is your new Captain." There were grumbles, especially from the guys who didn't get to try out, but they dispersed and I went over to Thalia with my bag in hand, still in my swim suit.

"Way to go cheater!" She said quietly enough so Lucy couldn't hear. "Are you a moron or what? There's a reason why I don't go around blasting mortals with lightning, _because I shouldn't be able to!_"

I sighed, "I know, I know, I was stupid. It won't happen again."

She laughed, "I wouldn't count on it Barnacle Brain. That is kind of your thing, acting stupid."

I shrugged and we walked towards the door. But not before Thalia said goodbye to Lucy and I awkwardly wished her good luck. When we were out of earshot I said, "What were you talking to her about?"

"Don't worry about it Perce, she's actually a pretty awesome girl. She didn't bring up you-know-what, I kind of feel bad about lying to her."

I put my hands up, "You're the one who told me to lie to her in the first place!"

She shrugged and I shook my head laughing. I dried myself off instantly and put on my clothes. Then we went to Central Park where Thalia was going to meet up with the rest of the Hunters and go back to her awesome immortal life. I walked her there and we said goodbye before the hunters would see that she was with a boy, they would probably get mad at her. And probably hurt me…

She gave me a quick hug, "Bye Percy, I'm gonna miss you."

"You too Thals, stay safe."

She smiled, "I'll try. Now you better not go dying on me either, ok?"

Not a typical goodbye for two teenagers, but this is our life. Suddenly a silver aura flashed around her. "Oh they're coming, you'd better leave before we get a lecture from Artemis."

I smiled and jogged a little ways down the path before turning around, but she was gone. That night I grabbed a small FedEx box from the closet and wrote Annabeth's address on the top, stamp and all. I took some time to write a note and placed a little fluffy owl that I had bought at the toy store in the box along with it. I would mail it in the morning. Was it cheesy? Maybe. But I didn't care, as long as it made her smile. Even if I wasn't there to see it.

**School starts on Thursday, Athena help me! So that means more time between chapters.**

**Guys I'm feeling guilty about sort of abandoning my Mark of Athena Fanfic, should I work on that a bit or continue with this one?**

**So some unnamed person is annoyed that I say REVIEW a lot, well sorry but I like getting reviews! So REVIEW PLEASE!**

**More reviews means more motivation for me to get down to business and start writing. Just saying :)**

-I didn't plan for each chapter to be so long, I just have so much to write! But I am seriously trying to condense the amount of time between now and when Annabeth arrives. Because I feel so bad that it's been 7 chapters and she still isn't at Goode, here's something to keep you reading-

**READ THIS FOR SNEAK PEEK:**

**Annabeth will come in hopefully 4 more chapters (there's so much going on in San Fran for her to leave just yet)…  
But it all depends on this: Do you guys want to read about Annabeth's arrival in Goode through her POV or Percy's POV? Or both?**

**Review, favorite, or subscribe please! Love you guys, thanks for reading!**

**-HowlOak**


	8. Watch and Learn

**Hi everybody! So I know this took a while but it's really long. Plus, the amount of reviews I got last time was not what I expected… (and not in a good way). But here's your chance to make me smile, REVIEW.**

So who's so incredibly excited for October 2**nd****? If you don't know what that date means, you are not a true fan!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO (you'll see why I added that last part)**

Here's Annabeth, I hope you like this chapter!

Chapter 8

Watch and Learn

Annabeth POV

_I sighed and shuffled, annoyed, into my room. I plopped my stuff down and lay on my bed. Somehow this day has gone from good to… well I was not as happy as before. But I knew how to change that. I rolled over onto my stomach and pulled my cell phone out of my back pocket. I hit 1 on the speed dial and bit the beads on my necklace as I heard the ringing sound._

Then I instantly smiled when a voice on the other end answered, "Hey."

I giggled and softly said, "Percy, I miss you."

Percy sighed and replied, "I miss you so much Annabeth. I can't believe it's been a whole day without talking to you! How did I survive?"

I laughed, "I ask myself that everyday, you being such a seaweed brain and all, it's a wonder you survived today without me watching your back!" I didn't really believe that of course, especially now that he was invincible.

He replied, "Hey I'm not that hopeless, as a matter of fact I killed two monsters today! They _were_ only angry Empousai…"

I was wondering when the monsters would come out of hiding from the big, bad, Savior of Olympus. I just didn't think it would be two annoying Empousai. "Hah! I bet my encounter with Aphrodite today was scarier than that!"

He sounded surprised, "She visited you too? She came into my math class and appeared after school."

Of course she did, the meddler! "Really? Well I guess that makes sense, we did talk about you."

He groaned, "Oh gods what did she say?" I heard a muffled call on the other end, _Percy your food's getting cold!_ Percy replied: _Be there in a minute!_

Oh, it's 4:00 here, so it's 7:00 in New York; dinner time in the Jackson residence. I said, "Sorry, I didn't know you were having dinner. But anyways, she didn't really say much. Just how we are on opposite sides of the continent and how she would help… I don't know. The one thing that stood out was something with my friend." Something about it, when Aphrodite came, something was bugging me and I couldn't figure out what it was. That was not something I was used to.

He sounded confused, "What friend? What happened?"

I sighed, racking my mind for the right answer, the right question. "Her name's Luella. Well… I'm not entirely sure." Then it came to me, the right question to ask, "Oh! Percy, when Aphrodite visited you, did the mortals see her?"

He replied, "No, they acted like she wasn't even there." Gears were turning in my head, I had a theory, but I needed some proof.

Percy added, "Annabeth I should probably get back to dinner, oh hey did you know Thalia's here?"

What a great time for me to _not_ be in New York. "She is?! My two best friends are together and I'm not there? This sucks."

I heard Percy's great laugh that I missed hearing in person, "Hey I thought we were a little more than friends!"

That was some dopey humor that I didn't miss. I sighed, who am I kidding, I miss everything about him. "Oh shut up Seaweed Brain, you know what I mean!"

I felt a little finger poke my arm and I quickly turned around to see Bobby holding a wooden sword and waving it around. He mouthed to me, _sword fight?_ I scrunched my face in anger and annoyance and whispered: _Go away! _

I told Percy, "You get back to dinner; I have to do my homework anyway."

He answered, "Okay, bye Wise Girl."

My heart jumped at the sound of my nickname, "I'll text you later. Bye Percy."

The rest of the night was uneventful and annoying. Homework took less than ten minutes, it is the first day of school after all. Matthew and Bobby kept poking me with their wooden swords. To get them off my case I took half an hour to teach them a few moves. Who knows, they might need to defend themselves one day. Maybe not with swords… but I was bored and I wanted them to stop bothering me. I tried to work on my sketches, but I was stuck on Poseidon's temple, I needed to make it perfect. I went to sleep that night dreaming of sea-green eyes and ionic columns.

The next day went by in a flash. My classes were easy, but I was still unable to design Poseidon's temple in drawing class. The one thing that I really focused on today was Luella. Not in a creepy stalker way. But I had a theory, I think she's a demigod. I know that may be crazy. There was an inner debate going on in my head. Part of me said: Annabeth, just because she saw Aphrodite doesn't mean she's a demigod, what are the chances there would be another one at the random school in California that you go to? Could being surrounded by demigods all my life led me to jump to that conclusion so quickly. I don't jump to conclusions. I get the facts. And if it's proof that I need, then I'll get it.

But what am I going to do, stab her with my dagger, see if she dies or not? I've never had to test to see if someone was half god, there was usually a satyr to lead me to them by their scent. Well I'd better think of something, because if she is a demigod, I've got some godly ass kicking to do. Percy made a deal. All demigods at the age of thirteen will be claimed and sent to camp half blood for safety. Now unless Luella skipped three grades, she's certainly no thirteen year old.

In the middle of this mental argument with myself, I hear my name being called and I snap back to reality. I'm staring into space, holding my locker door open. When I turn to see who it is, I feel my face muscles instantly form a scowl. Shelby was standing right in front of my face, and this time I decided it wasn't just a soccer ball that I would be kicking.

She says in a nasally voice, "Hey there Annie, look I just wanted to say that maybe we got off on the wrong foot, a pretty girl like you needs some popular friends. We've decided to let you sit with us at lunch tomorrow, without your loser friend of course." She smiled at me like I was a beggar on the street that she just gave a fiver.

I gave her a piercing stare, "_First of all_, call me Annie one more time and the facial surgery you've had in the past will all become a waste, as if it wasn't already. _Secondly,_ I'd rather go to Hades than sit with snobs like you at lunch, Luella is a better person than you'll ever be."  
She looked like she had just swallowed a jawbreaker. "Um… what?"

I tried to analyze her expression, it was more confusion than anger. Oh well, as long as she got the message: _ I want nothing to do with you_. I don't know where those snappy remarks came from, seems like Aphrodite's on my side today. Usually I'd just ignore girls like this but I wasn't one to let my friends be insulted to my face. Just I as I was about to shove past her still wide eyed group of soaked-in-perfume barbies, Shelby smiled slyly and glared at me, looking over my shoulder. I turned to see Mark walking towards us with his friends.

"Watch and learn sweetheart," she glanced up at the pictures of me and Percy in my locker and shook her head with pity, "take some notes, you'll need 'em to replace that photoshopped bf for a real one… _if that's possible_." She walked off towards Mark, almost runway style and I slammed my locker loudly. A lot of the kids in the hall turned and looked at me questioningly, but I heard a small yelp as the metal door whipped shut.

I turned around to see Luella standing near me, startled by the sudden crash my moment of anger had made. When the surprise faded from her face I saw some sadness as she walked up to me.

"Thanks Annabeth… I heard what she said about me, calling me a loser and all… but you're so nice to stick up for me. Especially to Shelby, no one's ever done that before. Considering who her dad is."

I patted her shoulder in a friendly way and she smiled, "Of course Luella, why would I let a mean girl like that insult you, or anybody? Who is her dad?"

"I'm surprised she didn't slip it in to your conversation, he's the manager for Tristan McLean."

"Um… okay…"

"Don't you know who Tristan McLean is? The movie star!"

I racked my brain for the movies that I've seen recently. None. "Never heard of him…"

"Wow, are you sure you lived in New York and not under a rock?"

I laughed and replied, "Movies aren't really my thing." I saw Luella peeking over my shoulder at Mark and I turned to see what was happening only a few feet away from us. Shelby was getting real touchy-feely and giggling, if I could've rolled my eyes farther back I would've. A second later I saw Mark politely pushing past Shelby and heading straight towards us. I could've sworn I heard Luella take in a quick breath when he smiled at her. Behind him Liam was happily chatting up the girls while Shelby glared over her shoulder at me.

Mark said, "Hey guys, so I was wondering if you had plans tonight. I'm having a party later and would love if you came." He smiled charmingly.

Luella instantly squeaked, "I'd love to!"

I replied more hesitantly, "Okay sure."

A high school party? What was I thinking? As I sat in my room about an hour later, I decided I wasn't going to go. Parties don't really scream Annabeth Chase. My homework was done, my architect's block had not failed yet, and Percy was still in school. Nothing to do…

I heard the doorbell ring but paid no mind to it, Helen, my step mom, seemed to live for having guests over and being a hostess. It was probably just another lady neighbor or PTA mom from Bobby and Matthew's school. But half a minute later I heard her call, "Annabeth! Someone's here to see you!"

I run downstairs and peek over the banister to see Rachel Dare at my door.

"Um… hi? Rachel what are you doing here?"

I walked the rest of the way and gave her a friendly hug.

"Well my school has a three day weekend and my dad was flying to San Francisco on his jet so I tagged along to surprise you! Oh that reminds me I need to tell Percy I'm not coming this weekend…"

I was surprised, happy and confused all at the same time. "What? What about Percy?"

"Never mind, lets go up to your room, shall we?"

I led her upstairs, she was still in her school uniform and looked so different from her usual paint spattered overalls kind of style. When we got to my room we sat on my bed and I stared at her with a calculating look. We were close friends now that she was the Oracle, but is that the real reason she came?

"Rachel, why are you really here?"

"To see you Ms. Third-degree!" She got a little closer and added, "Plus a little birdie me told me that you might need some backup tonight."

"With what, do you see a monster coming? What's wrong?"

She laughed and laid back on my pillows, "No need to worry my dear, sources tell me that there's a party tonight. And I'm your date."

I stared at her, an eyebrow raised, "What? You came all the way here for a party? Who told you anyways, I just got invited an hour ago."

"Who do you think told me, I'm sure you have your suspicions."

I grumbled, "Aphrodite." Why is she god-stalking me? Well I wasn't going to try to understand her reasoning, I had brain cells to keep. But I was very annoyed, what's the point of leading a normal-as-possible life when you've got a goddess on your tail, watching and commenting on your day like it's an engrossing soap opera?

"Forget it Rachel, I wasn't even planning on going. Look I'm happy you're here but we'll just have to do something else."

She shook her finger, "Nuh-uh. When a god tells you to do something. You do it. I was given strict instructions or, I quote, 'You'll get a makeover to last you a lifetime.'"

I gulped, when Aphrodite says lifetime, she means it. But when she says makeover, she _really_ means it.

Rachel was practically skipping down the street as we walked to Mark's house. I on the other hand was trudging along, mostly because I was annoyed but also because I needed space to think. I assumed that the reason Aphrodite's been so up-in-my-business these past few days is because the war is over. The gods all seemed to be less worried with contacting demigods now that the prophecy has been fulfilled. Too bad my own mother wasn't talking to me as much as the love goddess was. But hopefully I'd find a way to New York soon, maybe then we'd be able to have a somewhat normal relationship. And I could get back to my own relationship with Percy.

I turned the corner and saw Rachel tapping her foot, her arms crossed. A few houses down the street behind her there were lots of teenagers, loud music and cars surrounding a house. The scene was pretty surreal; with the suburban-type street, the dark sky complemented by the bright stars and moon. This is something they don't have in NYC, and no matter how much I dreaded going to this party, a small part of me wanted to see what it would be like to live a little differently for a change.

Rachel groaned, "Finally, I thought you had made a run for it or something. But then I thought, she wouldn't risk the makeover…" she smiled and laughed at her own joke.

I shuddered at the thought, I'd be a glitter monster for the rest of my life! We walked to Mark's door and knocked once when it instantly was opened. Mark was standing there and he grinned at me.

"Wow Annabeth, you look great!"

I looked down at my outfit for a second. I was wearing jeans and a purple blouse, nothing special. I smiled, "Thanks Mark, this is my friend Rachel."

Mark turned to my side like he hadn't noticed she was standing there, "Hey Rachel nice to meet you."

She put her arm around me and pushed me inside, "Same to you Mark! So where are the chips in this place?"

I rolled my eyes while Mark pointed to the other side of the room at a table with bowls of snacks on it. Rachel nodded at me and left my side for the food.

Mark came closer to me and said over the loud music and the buzzing of teenager conversation, "I'm so glad you came, let me show you around."

I nodded at him and we passed tons of kids I had never seen in my life. Some scowled at me, others smiled, others didn't seem to notice. There were kids sitting around on the stairs, dancing in the living room, or in some cases, kissing in the corners. He was about to show me the kitchen when I saw Luella sitting at the dining room table, eating a slice of pizza and talking to one of the punk girls from our drawing class. I put my finger up to Mark, telling him I'd be a minute, and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and smiled her usual giddy smile.

"Annabeth, I thought you weren't gonna show!" she gave me a quick hug that I wasn't expecting and then motioned for me to sit down. I turned to tell Mark I was going to have to cut the tour short but it looked like Shelby had that covered, I saw her dragging him away from the doorframe, he didn't look to happy about it. But he's a big boy, he can take care of himself. Then I saw Rachel push past the crowds of people in the room and sit right down in the middle of the table, cross-legged, holding a cup full of chips.

"This party's rockin' Annabeth, thanks for the invite!"

I shook my head but smiled, "Like I had a choice…"

She turned to Luella, "Hey I'm Rachel, Annabeth's friend."

Luella smiled and gave her a small wave, "I'm Luella; so do you go to Hoover High too?"

Rachel laughed, "Oh no I go to school in New Hampshire, I'm just visiting."

"So how do you two know each other?"

Rachel and I answered simultaneously, "Camp."

The rest of the night was surprisingly fun, I had good food; I talked to some not so horrible people, even some interesting ones. Rachel forced me to dance with her, because 'I wasn't being a very good date' and we laughed the whole time. Luella and Rachel seemed to get along famously, although whenever she was around, Rachel kept glancing at me like there was something I didn't know. Around an hour and a half after we got there, we were sitting on the couch and talking about music or boys or something. I wasn't really paying attention. But the living room had somewhat cleared out by that point. Mark, Will, Liam, and some other kids I didn't know, as well as Shelby and two of her friends came in. We said hi and then Shelby squealed excitedly.

"Everybody, we should totally play spin the bottle right now!"

Some of the girls nodded in agreement, Liam seemed to be happy about the suggestion too. I could've sworn I saw Mark glance at me quickly when she mentioned it. He replied, "Okay if you want…"

I groaned under my breath and turned to Rachel with an annoyed look. She was just smiling and pushing Luella into the now forming circle on the living room floor. We stayed put in our places however, neither of us wanted to be a part of the game. I saw Shelby run off and grab an empty bottle, rudely pushing two girls out of their spots in the circle when she returned.

Right before she was about to explain the rules, Mark turned to me and said, "Hey Annabeth, aren't you playing?"

I shook my head politely, "No thanks I'm good up here."

Shelby sighed dramatically, "Poor girl, she doesn't want her first kiss to be in a game…" Mark and Luella glared at her.

Rachel almost choked laughing when Shelby mentioned my first kiss. Shelby whipped her head around, "What's so funny?"

Rachel ignored her and mouthed to me: _they don't know about Percy?_

I shook my head, a smile playing on my lips. Shelby had no idea what she was talking about.

She brushed her long blonde hair over her shoulder and sighed, "Whatever, lets play."

Rachel and I watched the awkwardness unfold. Every time Shelby spun, it was clear she was wishing for it to land on Mark. But funny enough it never did, it did however land on Liam more than once, which he seemed _very_ happy about. Luella kept passing over her turn, until finally Rachel kicked her lightly in the back and she spun the bottle, blushing nervously. For the first time that night the bottle landed on Mark. He smiled reassuringly at her and they leaned forward and kissed. It was really cute, and I don't use that word often. The game seemed to get old, and the crowd dispersed. An angry Shelby and her friends stalked off. Leaving a happy Liam, a still-red Luella along with Mark and Will. They came over to us and Mark plopped down next to me.

"So, not much of a party girl, huh?" Mark asked me.

Rachel laughed at me again and then sat up straighter, grabbing her phone out of her back pocket. "Oh that reminds me, I'd better text Percy."

I looked at her with a small frown on my face, "What are you texting Percy about?"

She shook her head smiling, "Oh jealous Annabeth, how I've missed you!"

I sneered at her playfully and she replied, "Well I was supposed to visit him instead of you but you know how my plans changed… "

I nodded in understanding, the others around us did not.

Mark piped up, "Who's Percy?"

I could feel myself blush while Rachel prodded me with her foot from the other side of the couch to speak up. I glared at her and she butted in, "Oh for the gods sakes, he's Annabeth's boyfriend!"

After that the room went silent for a very long second. Then Mark said, "You have a boyfriend?"

I nodded at him a little embarrassed, but I didn't know why. We went home a bit after that. The party was pretty much over by then. Plus Mark seemed sort of down, I realize now it may have something to do with the fact that I have a boyfriend. I kind of suspected that he liked me, but I truthfully didn't know what to do about it. Well the truth was out now, and not just the fact that I'm taken. As Rachel and I walked Luella home, we passed by a dark alley. That moment Rachel stopped short and sucked in a sharp breath, turning to look in the alley and then instantly glanced at me with a look I knew far too well. There was a monster. Before I had time to charge at it with my dagger, it came bursting out of the darkness. It was a manticore and it roared at us as I whipped my dagger into its mass of fur. It disintegrated, but not before Luella let out a massive scream.

She turned to us, shaking and said, "That- That was a monster!"

Rachel and I both looked at each other with knowing expressions that said: yup, she's a demigod.

**What did you guys think, that's what I really want to know! Opinions, predictions, favorite moments?**

P.S. can someone tell me how to make that gray line across the page in these documents? Thanks!

**Haha I know Tristan McLean is part of the Roman series, but I felt a need for some Piper-ness in the story. But she won't be a part of the rest of story, it was just a little shout-out to my HoO buddies who we will all be obsessing over in about a week! Yay Mark of Athena!**

**(Btw, I discontinued my own MoA story, but it's still pretty rockin in my eyes, you should check it out!)**

**I didn't think I needed to give a minimum review number, but last chapter was not very impressive. If I get 40 reviews, I'll post the next chapter.**

40 reviews!

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**So please and thank you, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**

~HowlOak


	9. Fighting's not Just for Demigods

**HELLO MY PRETTIES :) THIS CHAPPIE IS LONG! WOO YAY**

**Your reviews made me fall in love with you all over again, thanks for the nice comments and support! I hope you're all pumped for Tuesday and for my next chapter! (hmm I wonder which you should be more excited about? Duh MoA!)**

**I'll stop writing so much here because it's clear nobody reads this part… *****sniffle**

**Thanks to WisestOwl for the iris message suggestion, and Musical Dream and BlueDecembers19 for the gray line tip.**

_**To answer some questions:**_

**-Sorry, Percy's not going to California. I agree that it would be hilarious and amazing, but I have the story planned out differently.**

**-I might actually do a Mel POV chapter, I still haven't decided, what do you think I should do?**

**...Oooh I love this gray line...**

* * *

Chapter 9

Fighting's not Just for Demigods

Percy POV

_I smiled and jogged a little ways down the path before turning around, but she was gone. That night I grabbed a small FedEx box from the closet and wrote Annabeth's address on the top, stamp and all. I took some time to write a note and placed a little fluffy owl that I had bought at the toy store in the box along with it. I would mail it in the morning. Was cheesy? Maybe. But I didn't care, as long as it made her smile. Even if I wasn't there to see it._

The next morning I woke up 30 minutes later than normal and rushed to put my clothes on and pack my bag for school. I was just about to run out of my room and grab some breakfast before hurrying to Paul's car. But then a realization struck me. It was Saturday. I could almost hear Annabeth sighing and shaking her head, "Oh Seaweed Brain." I groaned and threw my bag on the floor, kicked of my shoes and fell into my bed. I woke up 3 hours later, feeling well rested and also really stupid.

Later in the day I walked ten blocks to the post office to mail Annabeth's present, hopefully it wouldn't take too long to reach her. I checked the time on my phone and saw I had a message from Rachel, It read: _Not coming this weekend, sorry Perce. Btw, Annabeth says hi from the party ;)_. My disappointment that Rachel wasn't coming was completely overshadowed by my confusion. Was she with Annabeth in San Francisco? Were they at a party? No, Annabeth wouldn't go to a party… would she? Gods I wish she wasn't across the continent. Just being away from my best friend is hard enough. But, you know, she's not _just_ my best friend.

As I walked out of the building, I had an idea. Annabeth's phone was off, but being a demigod has its advantages. Technology has never stopped our communication. I made a b-line to Central Park and stopped at the nearest water fountain. I spayed it upwards, making a mist with my thumb on the nozzle, after about 2 minutes or repositioning myself, a rainbow appeared.

I pulled a golden drachma out of my pocket, tossed it into the spray and chanted, "_O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Annabeth Chase, San Francisco, California."_

The mist shimmered and then an image appeared. Part of the scene was covered by the back of someone's head; a girl with big, curly brown hair. She was talking to Annabeth. When Annabeth saw me her eyes widened, I got the sense that this was a bad idea. The girl turned to see what Annabeth was looking at and let out a little shriek, trying to swat away the Iris Message, but Annabeth caught her hand before she wiped my image away. Annabeth turned the girl around and whispered something in her ear. The girl looked less scared, and stood by Annabeth's side.

Annabeth shook her head but I could tell she was smiling, maybe blushing a little too, "Hi Percy."

I smiled, seeing her face was worth whatever trouble I had just caused. "Hey Annabeth. So who's your friend?"

Annabeth looked to her side, seeming to have forgotten who was standing there. "Oh, this is Luella." I waved to Luella who hesitantly waved back. Annabeth grit her teeth, she was annoyed at something. "Look Percy, it's amazingly great to see you, but I was just about to tell Luella something important."

I looked at her confused, "Huh?"

She came closer, filling up the image with her face, "About our parents, about _her_ mother."

It took me a second to realize what she was talking about. This girl, Luella, was about to learn that she's a demigod. Ugh why do I have such bad timing? Annabeth could tell I was sad that we had to end the conversation, but I didn't want to swipe away at the vision of her. Never.

Luckily, Annabeth said, "Oh fine, you have 1 minute." And she smiled at me. She turned to Luella and whispered something in her ear, at which point she stepped out of view. She came closer, "So…"

"So… I miss you."

She looked at me with sadder gray eyes, her voice much softer, "I miss you too."

Her face was so close; I just wanted to kiss her. But that would end the Iris Message. I smiled slyly, "So, a party huh?"

She looked surprised and then embarrassed, "Rachel made me! Well Aphrodite did, it's a long story…"

"I wish I could say I have the time to listen, but apparently I only have… 20 seconds…"

She laughed, "Well hurry, what did you want to tell me?"

I thought about that, what was I going to say? "Um… I just, wanted to talk to you. And your phone was off… "

She looked surprised, "What? My phones not- Oh shoot I left it at Mark's house!"

"What? Who's Mark?" I frowned.

"Sorry Percy I have to go," I heard her call Luella back into the room and with that Annabeth smiled and blew me a kiss. Then a hand made the image disappear. I was left with more questions than before. So this was Luella, I guess Annabeth was sure she's a demigod. And why was Rachel in California? Who is Mark and why was Annabeth at his house? I walked out of the park and got on the bus uptown. I sat down in the back and looked at the people passing by. None of them knew what the world they lived in was actually like. None of them could see through the Mist. Well that's not completely true. There could be some people out there who have those abilities like Rachel and my mom, but they probably think they're just 'seeing things.' I felt someone sit beside me, but I didn't turn from facing the window.

Next to me the person tapped me on my shoulder, I looked and saw Ben Lai, Lucy's twin brother. "Hey, you're Percy Jackson, right? I go to your school, I'm Ben-"

"-Lai, yeah I know your sister."

He laughed, "_You_ know _my_ sister? Wow."

"What? She's my lab partner."

"Oh yeah, well that explains it…"

Now I was seriously confused. "Explains what?"

"Dude, you're Percy Jackson, Captain of the swim team, most popular guy in school. I didn't expect you to be friends with Crazy Lucy."

I shrugged, this guy's kind of a jerk to his sister… "I think she's pretty cool. Why'd you call her Crazy Lucy?" The bus stopped and he got up to leave.

He turned as he stood, "That's what our whole family calls her, she's always saying crazy stuff… I won't bother you with the details. See ya around."

I waved goodbye. Well that was weird… Fortunately the rest of the weekend was absolutely normal and monster-free, something I've learned to cherish. On Sunday I tried to do my homework and went to a movie with Alice, Miles and Tanner. Next week I was focusing on the swim meet we had on Thursday with our school's rival, McKafferny Academy. Practices were getting grueling, even for me. I had to focus on keeping my swimming down to a human level of speed. Lucy got on the swim team, so I saw her all the time. But I didn't mention the encounter with her brother; when he called her 'Crazy Lucy.'

* * *

I woke up Thursday morning, the day of the swim meet, feeling pumped and ready to go. Well not pumped to go to school of course. But actually, things have been going ok. Besides my expected failures in some subjects, in other classes like Marine Biology and Greek, I might be the best in class. Wow that's weird to say. Even though I know I'm only good at those subjects because I'm a son of Poseidon, it's still nice to have teachers not think I'm an idiot for once. The day was a blur, swimming was a pretty big deal at Goode because we were once city champions a few years before I came. Everyone wants the title back, so when I walked into school that day, as the new captain, I got lots of pats on the back and 'good lucks.' It seemed like everyone in school was going to be watching me swim later.

Half the day went by and the whole school had already put so much pressure on me. But I wasn't nervous, I was used to being a leader, but normally it was win or die, not win or lose; so that made things a bit easier. I walked into the lunchroom and sat down with my friends. All of the girls were wearing Goode Swim shirts in support of the team. I picked at my ugly looking cheeseburger while Alice, Marie and Mel talked about the upcoming dance.

Alice turned to face me and Tanner, "So who are you guys taking to the dance?"

Tanner grinned, "I can get any girl I want in this school, you pick one, I'll take her." Miles and Andre were almost rolling on the floor.

Andre said, "If that were true Tanner, you'd already have a girlfriend by now."

"Hey, I don't want to be tied down like you suckers!" He laughed in a friendly way that told us he was kidding. He put him arm around my shoulder, "Me and Perce here, we're solo men, livin' the dream."

I rolled my eyes and squeezed out of his grip, "Gods guys, I really do have a girlfriend!"

Marie giggled, "_Ok_ Percy, sure." The sarcasm was thoroughly noted. Was it really so hard to believe? I thought about what Alice had asked, she did have a point, I hadn't even thought about the dance.

Mel was laughing and then stood up, looking around the cafeteria. "Ok Mr. Big Shot, how about her?" She turned to Tanner and pointed at Seraphina who was walking right up to our table.

Tanner stood up and pointed his finger in Mel's face, which was smiling cockily, "Challenge accepted." She rolled her eyes and we watched as Tanner walked away from the table and towards Seraphina.

Tanner got up and stood in front of her, his back in my face. I scooted over to see the conversation. Tanner nodded his head at her, "Hey Seraphina, how's it goin'?"

She rolled her eyes and tried to walk around him, but he just stepped to the side and they stood face to face again. He put his hands in his pockets, "So, I was wondering, how about you go to the dance with me next Friday?"

She put her hands on his chest, and smiled sweetly, "How about no?" Then she pushed him back and continued walking towards us, or rather, towards me.

Tanner grumbled all the way back to his seat and we patted him on the back as he passed. I placed my garbage on my tray and was about to get up and throw it away when I felt a hand tap my shoulder. I turned to see the not so surprising face of Seraphina smiling at me and batting her eyelashes.

"Hi Percy."

I smiled politely, "Seraphina-"

She interrupted, "You. Me. The dance. Pick me up at 8:00 next Friday?"

I looked up at the ceiling, was some god messing with me? She was more annoying than The Stolls are to the Demeter cabin. I stood up, causing her to take a surprised step back. I looked back at Tanner, who was getting seriously angry right now.

Grabbing my tray, I looked her in the eyes and said, "When are you going to get it? I'm not interested! Just leave me alone, ok?" I walked past her and threw my garbage away. I turned back, hoping she was gone, put she was still there, hands on hips, jaw to the ground, fire in her eyes.

As I walked back, she turned her anger on Mel, who was now trying to suppress her giggles. "What are you laughing at creep? It's not like anyone asked you to the dance! And please, it's so obvious you like Percy, get over it, he's mine!"

Mel's face went from a smile to a growling, clenched jaw in about a second, "Oh just shut it Seraphina! Percy Does. Not. Like. You! Take a hint!"

The whole cafeteria was watching the girls fight it out now, I just stood in my place, trying to process that they might be fighting about me…

"Oh look who's talking! You're the one who needs to take a hint. And while you're at it, don't show your ugly face near me again, not at school, and not at the dance. Like you'd even have a date."

I could practically see the smoke coming out of Mel's ears as she snapped back, "Don't you threaten me you plastic Barbie! As a matter of fact, I'm going to the dance with Tanner!" I looked to see Tanner's eyebrows go up in surprise and then he just shrugged and smiled.

Seraphina and her girls laughed, "Way to go, you can have my sloppy seconds."

Mel smirked and practically whispered with confidence, "He only asked you out because I _dared_ him to."

With that Seraphina turned and stomped out of the cafeteria. The bell rang and I still hadn't moved. I saw Mel grab her bag and hurry out the door, taking a second to look back at my face, and then she turned and was out of sight.

Whoa, that was a lot to process. I'm glad Mel stood up to Seraphina, but I was still caught on the fact that she said Mel liked me… I decided to not believe a word that Seraphina says, if Mel wanted to tell me something, she would, right? Since when was there all of this drama about stuff that hardly matters, in the big scheme of things? I shook it off and made it through the rest of the day, despite the whispers about lunch. When school ended, I immediately changed into my swim trunks and went to practice. The second I entered the pool area; Lucy came running up to me in her Goode blue and white swimsuit.

She looked worried, "Oh good, there you are! Some guys have your cell phone in the hallway!"

"What? Where?"

She took my arm and we hurried out the door to the hall, she led me down a corridor. When we turned the corner, Spencer Roan was there and he and his friends were looking at my phone and laughing. I walked up to them and was about to grab it from his hand but two of his friends stepped in front of me.

I was seriously pissed, "What do you think you're doing Spencer?"

He turned and laughed at me, "Nothing, fish boy."

Lucy went and stood beside me, she spoke, "Give it back, you jerk!"

I put my hand in front of her but one of the guys grabbed her and held her to his body so she couldn't move.

I was about to fight him when I heard a beep from my phone and Spencer said, "Oooh little fish boy's got a text from a girl named Annie Bell…" Wow, and he's not even dyslexic like me…

He tapped the screen and I tried to grab it out of his hand but he stepped backwards, "Awww," he read from the screen, "_Good luck at the meet Percy! I'm cheering for you!" _Then he held up a picture of Annabeth that had come with the text, she was smiling and was holding a sheet of paper that had GO PERCY written on it in green marker.

"What a loser, there's no way he could get a girl like this." His friends laughed and I snatched the phone away from his hands. I was just about to get at the guy who was still holding Lucy, but as I turned, she had other plans. She kneed the guy in a sorry place and then gave him a swift kick in the chest, finishing him off with two quick jabs on the sides of his torso. He slid down to his knees and groaned, the rest of the guys started turning and hurrying away.

She walked away smiling and grabbed my hand, directing us around the corner. We slowed our steps as we walked down the corridor.

"Wow Lucy, that was seriously impressive!"

She gave me a small smile, "Thanks, I've never used my Tae Kwon Do training on anyone outside of the studio before…" She grinned even more, looking a little embarrassed, "It was kind of fun…"

We laughed and I pushed the door of the pool gym open and we walked in. Some of the spectators had gathered in the stands, but we still had half an hour until McKafferny showed up. Lucy and I quickly got in the pool and started doing laps and drills. It seemed like only a minute had passed, but when my head reached the surface of the water and I looked out, the stands were full of people, mostly from Goode, but there were some wearing the signature McKafferny green shirts. Then I saw the other team walk in through the locker room doors. They looked seriously confident; I would to if I was part of a champion team. But they didn't know what they were in for.

I thought of Annabeth's text, despite the horrible way that I found out about it, it meant the world to me. It's the best feeling to know someone out there is thinking of you, hoping you'll succeed. I was always used to everyone gunning for my failures, they didn't expect much from me. I know if I told anyone that, they'd say I proved them all wrong this summer. But it still doesn't feel that way to me, sometimes I think of myself as that scrawny kid whose wildest dreams (and nightmares) couldn't compare to the life I've lived now. My train of thought was broken when I heard the whistle blow, signaling my team to get out of the pool and greet our opponents. I jumped out and walked alongside my friends, leading my team, hopefully with confidence. I stopped, standing in front of their captain, Kieran Phillips, supposedly the best swimmer in the city.

"So you're the famous Percy Jackson, I hear you're pretty good…"

I smiled friendlily, brushing my wet hair away from my forehead and stuck out my hand to shake his, "Nice to meet you, I saw you at champs last year, great job."

He looked surprised at my attitude, then smiled in a sincere way and shook my hand. "Thanks man, best of luck to you."

I smiled secretively, "Thanks, but we won't need it."

His eyebrows went up, "We'll see about that." Despite our school's rivalry, I thought Kieran was pretty cool as our teams walked back to our sides of the pool. The crowds in the stands were cheering now, I even heard some people screaming my name. I saw Alice, Marie and Mel in the stands too. Alice blew a kiss at Miles and he blushed like a tomato, it was pretty funny. I gathered the team together and realized I had no idea what to say…

"Look guys, I know you may think it's a long shot, that we will probably lose…"

Tanner interrupted, "Way to get our spirits up Perce!"

"_As I was saying_, it's not a long shot, in fact, I'm positive we've got this one guys. So just do your best, and I know we'll win. This team is the greatest in Goode history."

The team cheered and high fived each other. Then the events started. For every event, where you placed got your team a certain number of points. We were doing really well in the beginning. We didn't always place 1st in everything, but the points were adding up and it was looking good. When I swam, I got 1st by a mile in every event. I could feel the adrenaline pulsing through me, but I also heard the guiding voice in my head (it sounded remarkably like a certain Daughter of Athena) tell me to tone it down. All eyes were on me when I got out of the pool after my last race. I hadn't faced Kieran during the entire meet; he had entered a lot of the races that I let my other members go for. I would never know now if he really was the best of the best. I looked at the scoreboard and saw that, although I had placed 1st in all of my races, Goode was losing. I regrouped with the team and saw their sullen faces.

Andre said, "Percy I don't think we can turn this around, they're just too good."

Lucy piped in, her hair plastered to the sides of her head, but her dark eyes sparkled with excitement, "That's not true! If we win the next race, we'll tie. Then they'll have a speed race to determine the winner!" I looked at her, my eyebrows up with a hint of disbelief. She frowned, "Guys, I'm positive."

I wasn't swimming in the next one, so it was up to whoever actually was racing to get us that tiebreaker. "Ok then, so who's swimming in the next race?"

Lucy gulped, she didn't think about this part. "I- I am."

Some of the team groaned like they had given up and I scowled at them. "It's fine guys." It turned to Lucy, "You've got this."

She smiled nervously; "I'll try my best, sorry if I let you guys down…" she looked at her feet.

"You won't." I replied confidently. The team patted her on the back as she walked up to the side of the pool. The whistle blew and she dove in. The crowd held their breath. It was hard to tell who was winning; they seemed neck and neck. As they turned on their last lap, the crowd stood up in anticipation. Then the two swimmers reached the sides of the pool, and it was impossible to tell who was first. But we turned our heads to the scoreboard and saw the number on our side change to match McKafferny's. We cheered and the team gave Lucy a big hug.

Then we heard a voice say, "It's not over yet. Time to break this tie." I turned to see Kieran, who was looking at Lucy with surprise and respect. "Nice swimming Lai."

She blushed, "Thanks…"

He smiled and turned back to me, "Ready to do this?"

I nodded. Time to win it.

The race went by so fast I couldn't believe it was over. I felt myself fly into the water like a rocket, feeling the water move around me, not stopping to take an unnecessary breath. When I popped my head up, many seconds later I saw Kieran's hand shoot out to the side of the pool beside me. I had won, but there was no doubting it, this kid was good.

When we got out of the pool, we shook hands again; his face was clearly disappointed, but also impressed.

"Kieran, you are really talented. Great job."

"Thanks Percy, but you won anyways…"

I was about to say something, maybe apologize, but my team engulfed me in hugs and pulled me away. I was in a mess of soaking wet friends and cheering. It couldn't have been any better. Well, unless someone else was here with me.

* * *

The team went out to get pizza afterwards, I got so many congratulations, it was kind of silly compared to what my friends and I had done for all of them this summer, without any of them knowing. The dinner was fun, and as I walked out to head home, I bumped into a girl. By the dark hair and tan skin, I knew it was Mel.

"Hey."

"Hi Percy, great job today."

I smiled, "Thanks… and about what Seraphina said-"

She stopped me; her face was full of emotion. "I don't want to talk about it. See you tomorrow." Then she rushed out the door.

Friday was practically an all-day party. I have to admit, all of the attention was pretty fun. Except that half of it was girls flirting with me (it was so obvious even I got the hint) and numbers being slipped in every pocket that was on me. When I opened my locker door, papers would flutter out. Some said things like: 'call me!' or 'your six pack is hot.' It was all too weird. I felt like I was being punk'd, that might have made more sense. I gave all of the slips to Tanner, who so graciously took them off of my hands; he couldn't have looked more excited.

By the time Monday rolled around again, I assumed he would've had a million dates. But when I saw him in the morning, before homeroom, he had some surprising news for the group.

He walked up smiling and clearly couldn't hold in his excitement. "Everybody, forget what I said about being tied down. I have found the hottest most amazing girl on the face of this planet."

Marie asked, "Does she go here?"

"She's new."

* * *

**ASK ME ANYTHING. I LOVE QUESTIONS :)**

**So I hope that was to your satisfaction. Shout out to all of my readers that are not in the USA, thanks for reading! Also to those of you in the USA, thanks for reading too haha!**

So, questions? Comments? Love it? Hate it? Suggestions? Predictions? Hmmmm…

**I love REVIEWS like Grover loves enchiladas :D**

Next week I'll be savoring my future favorite book, Mark of Athena, and then I'm going away for the weekend. So I'm not sure when the next update will be…

**Every review takes one hour off of your waiting time! That's not true… but it sure does help :) **

**REVIEW por favor (that's Spanish for please)**

**Also, what do you think of a story about a new demigod? Not with Percy or Annabeth as main characters in the story… same world though.**

**~HowlOak**


	10. Welcome to My World: Annabeth I

**HEY HEY NEW CHAPPIE hehe**

**Oh hey guys, how's it going? Haha sorry it has been sooooo long, but school and Mark of Athena got in the way. I won't spoil anything, BUT HOW AWESOME WAS MARK OF ATHENA? PERCABETH IS MY OBSESION. **

**65 REVIEWS FOR ONE CHAPTER! WOW! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH MY LOVES! My life is complete :)**

Just for that, you guys get the longest chapter ever. 6,861 words. YES, 2,000 WORDS LONGER THAN EVER!

**IMPORTANT NOTICE:**** The next chapter will be in Annabeth's POV as well.**

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Chapter 10

Welcome to My World: Annabeth I

Annabeth POV

_As Rachel and I walked Luella home, we passed by a dark alley. That moment Rachel stopped short and sucked in a sharp breath, turning to look in the alley and then instantly glanced at me with a look I knew far too well. There was a monster. Before I had time to charge at it with my dagger, it came bursting out of the darkness. It was a manticore and it roared at us as I whipped my dagger into its mass of fur. It disintegrated, but not before Luella let out a massive scream._

_She turned to us, shaking and said, "That- That was a monster!"_

_Rachel and I both looked at each other with knowing expressions that said: yup, she's a demigod._

* * *

Luella stayed silent as we followed her to her house. After the monster disintegrated, Rachel and I had told Luella we needed to talk with her and her father. She seemed pissed. Not scared, just annoyed. She knew we were keeping the truth from her, and she was not excited about having to wait to learn it until she brought us to her father. But I had done this before, explaining to demigods who they are, what they are. Because Luella has a mortal parent in her life, I couldn't just drop this bomb on her without telling him too, he might even know the truth already, some mortal parents of demigods do.

The night sky was pitch black and I pulled my sweater tighter around my body. I wasn't looking where I was walking when I realized we were standing in front of a red door. None of us had said a word the whole way. I looked at Luella's house as she turned her key in the lock. It was a cream colored townhouse with a bright door and lots of flowers in the garden out front.

Before I had time to look more, Rachel tapped me on the shoulder and nudged me inside; Luella was holding the door open.

She looked straight into my eyes with desperation. "Well, here's home. Let me get my dad from upstairs."

Rachel and I stood near the door as she shuffled up the forest-green carpeted staircase.

Rachel sighed, "Well that was awkward…"

"Tell me about it."

"I guess I don't blame her for shutting up, if I had just seen a crazy monster come at me and then turn to dust, I would be seriously mad if I didn't get answers. Like right away."

I hushed my tone to a whisper, "We can't tell her something like this in a creepy alley! Rachel, we're about to change her life. She should be with her family."

"Annabeth, did you see how hurt she was when we kept the truth from her for like sixteen minutes? What if it turns out her father's been doing the same for sixteen years?"

Rachel had a point; I hadn't thought that telling her with her father would cause any trouble between them. But then again, I didn't have a normal father-daughter relationship. If I had it my way, I wouldn't want my family to know I was a demigod. That's where all of our problems came from. It was too late to turn back when Luella came gliding down the stairs; there was a loud creaking noise that was not coming from her…

Behind her a huge man followed, making the wooden stairs screech with every step. By huge I mean muscular, like a body builder or Olympic athlete. But he was older; in his forties I would guess. He had cropped grayish hair, darker skin than Luella, and a large, hardly visible, tattoo of some sort of bird, maybe a dove, on his left shoulder. He wore a white tank top and flannel pajama pants. This was Luella's father?

He looked quite annoyed when they got down to the ground floor. Out of his mouth came one of the deepest voices I've heard, like an old jazz musician. "Luella, what is this about? It's midnight!"

She looked completely at ease with him even though he was almost two heads taller than her. "Sorry Dad, these are Annabeth and Rachel, they need to talk to us about something…"

She looked back at me with the same desperate eyes, like she had no idea what was coming next and she didn't know if she wanted to or not. I replied, trying to act strong and mature in front of the massive man staring me down. "Let's all sit down."

We sat down in the living room, Rachel and I facing Luella and her father. Rachel began, "Luella, Mr. Smith… we need to talk to you about Luella's mother."

Instantly Mr. Smith's face scrunched up in anger. "Who are you girls? You have no right to come in hear and mention her!" Luella put her hand in front of her father's chest, as if her tiny twig arm could ever stop him from lunging at us.

I gulped, "I'm Annabeth Chase, I go to Camp Half-Blood." I looked into his eyes, trying to see if that rang any bells. But he looked even more confused and pissed than before.

Luella came in with her contrasting singsong voice, "Is that supposed to mean something Annabeth?"

Rachel muttered, "Apparently not…"

I glared at her and continued, "Half-Blood, as in half human… half god. I'm the daughter of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom."

The two of them stared at me like I had just spoken in Japanese. Luella said, "Annabeth, what are you saying? Are you… ok?" with the last word she pointed to her head, meaning _is-your-brain-functioning?_

I pushed on, "Yes I'm fine. And I'm telling the truth. The Greek gods are out there, your mother-"

Mr. Smith stopped me by standing up and walking to the door. All of our eyes followed him with confusion. Except Luella, she was starring at her polka-dot socks, unraveling a fringe on a pillowcase. Mr. Smith swung the door open and pointed his finger at me.

"I'm done listening to this crazy talk. Whatever you're selling, I don't want it. And you two are not to go near my daughter again, you hear me? I won't stand for this ridiculousness, you can't come in here and speak of Luella's mothe-" he stopped there, clearly emotional. He composed his intimidating face into a familiar scowl and said, "Get out. Now."

I knew better than to argue with him, so Rachel and I walked out the door. Luella wouldn't look us in the eyes. The second I stepped onto the cobblestone walkway, I felt the wind whip by me as the door slammed swiftly at our backs. I turned to Rachel, trying to process the situation.

"Well that went well…" Rachel mumbled.

I rolled my eyes, unseen in the darkness, "_No, really?_ Look, we should just give them some time. I'll talk to her at school on Monday…"

"Why not try tomorrow?"

I groaned, pulling her arm in the direction of my house, we started walking, directed by the light ok the street lamps and the moon. "I can't… Helen's taking me shopping…"

She laughed, "Sounds like a party!"

"I think we've had enough of those…"

"Too true."

"Come on, let's hurry to my house. It's getting really late…"

Rachel picked up the pace. "You're right, my ride's coming to pick me up in a few hours, and I was hoping to get some sleep…"

I turned to her while walking, "What ride?"

She chuckled a little, "Let's just say, I've got to be ready by 6:48 sharp."

I smiled, "Apollo's sun chariot. That's friendly of him."

"I _am_ his new Oracle, it's got sweet perks. He even said he's, and I quote: 'Pimping my cave' at Camp Half-Blood."

I laughed as we turned the corner on to my street. We quietly went up to my room and collapsed on the bed. We fell asleep with our clothes on, lying on top of the covers. At around 6:30 AM I woke up to Rachel tapping me on the nose. I groaned, "Stop… it's so early!"

She whispered, carrying her school bag on one shoulder, "The sun's coming soon Annabeth, I'm on my way out."

I forced my self to sit up and she came over and gave me a hug. "I know this was all Aphrodite's doing, but thanks for coming. I'm glad we're friends."

She smiled, "Duh smarty pants, I had lots of fun! Well except for Luella's dad and the monster…"

I shook my head, "Welcome to my world."

She looked like she took that very seriously. "Thank you."

She was walking to my bedroom door when I said, "Rachel?"

She turned, "Yeah, Annabeth?"

"If you see Percy-"

She interrupted with a clever grin on her face, "Don't worry, you'll see him soon enough."

With that she walked out of the room and slowly closed my door without a sound. A few minutes later I saw the sun start shining in through my curtains and I knew she was gone. I sighed and put my head on my pillow, drifting back to sleep.

I woke up later; well it felt like later though I had no idea when it was. I could tell I wasn't really awake; this was the feeling I got when I was dreaming. But not a normal dream, the ones demigods like me get. However, unlike the usual scare-the-enchiladas out of me nightmares, this one was a little nicer. I was standing on a New York City sidewalk. I tried to make out the numbers on the bright green street sign, to tell where in Manhattan I was, but they kept blurring together. I turned just in time to see a pretty Hispanic girl rush out of the doors of what looked like a pizzeria. She didn't see me when she hurried past; she looked mad and embarrassed. I turned to the window of the pizzeria and saw a pair of melt-your-heart/brain/everything sea green eyes staring at the two doors where the girl had just walked through. He shook his head in a confused way, something I'd seen him do far too often, and then he went over to a crowd of kids sitting by the window, eating and laughing. I was about to walk into the building, but I couldn't move. All I could do was watch Percy, which was fine with me. I felt myself slipping into consciousness, the dream was ending. But then I caught a glimpse of an Asian girl with wet hair staring right at me.

I woke up with a start and looked around my room. Rachel was gone and I was still in my clothes from last night. The clock said 8:30 AM. But those two hours felt like two minutes. Helen would be dragging me to the mall in less than an hour and I may have been dreading that more than I was dreading facing Luella on Monday.

As luck would have it, my fears were delivered early. My door creaked open slowly and I blinked my sleepy eyes to find Luella peeking in behind my door. She whispered, "Annabeth?"

"Luella? What are you doing here?"

She walked all the way into the room. "I'm sorry about my dad, my mother's a touchy subject."

"It's fine, I get it."

"What you said last night… I don't understand. But I think I want to. I trust you."

I was about to answer when I saw the air shimmering behind her. I stood up and my eyes widened. Before I could do anything, Luella turned around and saw Percy staring at us, looking surprised, in an Iris Message. Luella let out a yelp, she was not used to people appearing from thin air. She tried to swipe at Percy but I caught her hand and directed her behind my right shoulder.

I whispered, "It's ok Luella, you're not in danger."

She relaxed her shoulders a bit and turned to face Percy with me. I shook my head; this stupid seaweed brain sure knows a thing or two about bad timing. But I couldn't help smiling at the same time. I looked into his face, much more real than any video chat, I may have blushed a little. He looked so handsome it was kind of unfair.

"Hi Percy."

He smiled and said, "Hey Annabeth. So who's your friend?"

Oh right. Luella's here. I got out of my misty-eyed moment and turned to her for a second. "Oh, this is Luella." He waved to her in a sweet and friendly way. She waved back, but it was small and clearly nervous. This may be too much for her, as much as I wanted to continue talking to Percy for the whole day (forever's more like it) I had to focus on Luella right now.

My jaw clenched at the thought of swatting through the message, "Look Percy, it's amazingly great to see you, but I was just about to tell Luella something important."

He looked confused, "Huh?"

I stepped closer to the image; we were face to face now, "About our parents, about _her_ mother."

After a second he seemed to get what I meant. His face was so close to mine…

At that moment I gave in to my wishes and said, "Oh fine, you have 1 minute." I smiled and whispered in Luella's ear, telling her I'd just be a minute. She slowly walked out of the room, not taking her eyes of Percy's floating image. I stepped even closer and said, "So…"

He looked down at his feet for a second. "So… I miss you."

My heart jumped, I missed him so much! "I miss you too."

He brushed his fingers through his hair, making me get goose bumps for a second. Then he looked at me with a sweet but goofy smile and said, "So, a party huh?"

Oh gods how did he find out about that? I felt my cheeks flush with color. "Rachel made me! Well Aphrodite did, it's a long story…"

"I wish I could say I have the time to listen, but apparently I only have… 20 seconds…"

I laughed, "Well hurry, what did you want to tell me?"

He looked like he was trying to remember, "Um… I just, wanted to talk to you. And your phone was off… "

I sucked in a short breath or surprise, racking my brain to where I last saw my phone. Ugh Hades! "What? My phones not- Oh shoot I left it at Mark's house!"

"What? Who's Mark?" He frowned.

I sighed and replied, "Sorry Percy I have to go." He looked disappointed. I called Luella back from the hall and then smiled at him. He had a small pout on his face, so I blew him a quick kiss before swiping my hand through the misty vision. Luella creaked the door open even slower than before. She came in and we sat together on my bed.

"What was that? Who was that?" She choked on tears of fear, "What's going on?"

I took a deep breath, "Let me start from the beginning. All of those Greek myths you've heard? They're true. All of the heroes, the gods… the monsters, they all exist. That's what we saw last night. A monster. I killed it with my dagger; it's made of celestial bronze. Some of the things celestial bronze can kill are monsters and demigods. We- we're demigods Luella." She continued to listen, but her eyes told me she was trying to grasp what I was saying, "My mother, as I said last night, is Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Your mother is a Greek goddess as well." I was about to tell her who I thought her mother was, but she stood up. She had an anxious look on her face.

"Annabeth… this is a lot to ask me to believe…"

"I know it is. Trust me I do. But-"

"I should go… I need some time to think." Then she suddenly rushed to the front door and I followed.

I was worried something was wrong, but when I reached her at the front hallway, she said, "Please, I- I just need some time to think. Thank you." Then she hurried out the door. I was about to let her have that time, it is a lot to take in, but I heard her scream from my front steps. I ran out of the door to see a glowing pink symbol of a dove above Luella's head. When the symbol finally faded, I was practically looking at a different person. Luella's hair was bouncy and in big curls. She had makeup on, making her look more like a supermodel than the geeky friend I knew. She wore a shimmering and strappy golden party dress and matching heels.

"What happened to me?" She yelled urgently. "This is too much…"

I tried to calm her down, "Luella, you just got claimed! Your mother is Aphrodite, goddess of love."

She tilted her head in confusion, "How can that be? I'm not even pretty…"

I laughed, "Maybe you should look in a mirror once in a while. Especially now that you have the blessing."

"She hadn't moved from her spot on the steps, "The blessing?"

"Of Aphrodite, that hair and makeup won't be going away for around a week."

She turned to her reflection in my house's windows and her eyes bugged, "Wha- What is happening?" She looked at her feet and started walking to the sidewalk, she turned to me, clearly about to leave and said, "I just-"

"-need some time to think. I know. I get it, trust me. Stay safe."

She nodded and the walked easily and quickly down the street in her murderously high heels.

My mind was racing. Luella's mother was Aphrodite. The same annoying-as-Hades goddess who wouldn't leave me alone! Also the same goddess who I was going to have a little chat with… She can't just treat my life like her personal plaything and ignore Luella until now, her daughter, who has been right in her face. Putting my anger for Aphrodite aside, Luella was clearly freaking out. She kept saying she needed time to think. I was afraid all of this was too much for her to handle. I'd seen that happen, sometimes demigods who find out who they are go a little off the rails, trying to understand that their whole life was a lie. They had to learn so much about things bigger than they could comprehend, and sometimes they couldn't take it. I truly hoped she was going to be okay, she just needed space to figure things out.

I patted my back pocket, looking for my phone to check the time, but I remembered I had left it at Mark's. I was about to head over to go over to his house right away and get it back, but I heard Helen yelling my name inside the house. I sighed and trudged back in. This day was so packed with problems and it wasn't even lunchtime yet. When I got inside, Helen told me that it was time to go to the mall.

Right. Shopping. Perfect.

* * *

Shopping with Helen wasn't as horrible as expected. Well it was, but I was so focused on what Luella must be thinking and feeling, that I didn't pay much attention to Helen. She took that as another attempt at avoiding her, so there was an air of tension between us. We were walking out of the mall. I had bought some essentials, lots of shirts and jeans, underwear and even some skirts. Then she stopped to look in a store window. I turned to see what she was looking at. In the window was a mannequin wearing a simple yet beautiful dress. It was strapless and had a poufy skirt that hit just above the knee. The fabric looked like woven white and silver threads. In the display there was a tilted mirror behind the mannequin, so that the shoppers could see the back of the dress. It looked like a Victorian corset, with a robins egg blue satin ribbon tied up the back in a neat bow.

"Wow," I said, "it's beautiful."

She nodded, then turned, "C'mon, let's go home."

I looked at the dress for a minute more and then turned away, "Right... Ok."

By the time Monday rolled around I hadn't heard a word from Luella, I was still phoneless and my sketches weren't getting any better. When I walked up to the courtyard in front of Hoover High, there was more buzzing of gossip than normal. I had a small inkling of what it was about when I saw a crowd of people surrounding a familiar head of bouncy brown curls. I pushed through the crowd and saw Luella at the center laughing and talking to Mark, with people I've never seen grouping around her. Obviously she still had the blessing, and people were taking notice. She seemed to love it.

I tapped her on the shoulder; Mark gave me a small smile. "Hey Luella, do you want to talk?"

She turned but looked quickly to her shoes when she saw it was me. She shook her head quietly. She was _not_ ready to talk. I backed off and made my way out (or really was pushed out) of the crowd. Well all of my friends were over there, and I didn't want to push Luella into anything she wasn't ready for. So I just laid down on the grass and closed my eyes. About two minutes later I felt a shift in light behind my closed eyes, there was someone standing over me. I opened my eyes to see Shelby smiling down on me. I groaned and sat up.

"What do you want Shelby?"

She sat down next to me and looked over at the crowd, "It hurts doesn't it?"

"What does?"

"Losing it so fast. Guess you're not Ms. Pretty-New-Girl anymore."

I laughed, "It's funny how you think I care about that kind of thing."

She turned to me with a slight look of confusion, "Well don't you?"

I stood up and held out my hand to help her up, she looked at my hand with some disgust and stood up on her own. I shook my head with distaste, "No, Shelby. Not everything is about attention. Don't you get that?"

She smiled like she knew all the answers, "Don't try to deny it. You're jealous of your upstart friend. The most painful fall is from the top sweetie."

Gods, she really can't be nice, can she? I smirked and walked a few steps away. But I stopped and turned around. She needs to be told off or she'll never learn. "You would know, _sweetie_."

I was so tired of dealing with her. I was tired of the fog, the lack of skyscrapers, and all the drama. I just want to go back to New York with all of my friends. But there are some things holding me back. Luella is a demigod and my friend, I couldn't leave her without being sure she was safe and resolved. Plus, there's my family. Even though Helen and I are on the rocks as usual, and my dad is around less than I would like, this may be the best we've all gotten along as a family… which is kind of depressing too.

The rest of the day was… a bit lonely. Luella avoided talking to me, it seemed like Mark was too, he only talked to me to give me back my phone. I was back to square one, if only Percy was here. Seeing his face over the weekend in that Iris Message was wonderful and heart breaking at the same time. I miss him, he's my best friend and my boyfriend, and it's tough being here alone, even tougher without him especially. I sighed as I walked into the lunchroom, expecting to sit by myself today. But when I walked in, Luella waved me over. I squeezed through our more crowded than normal table and took a seat. I looked into her eyes but I could tell nothing had changed when it came to you-know-what.

Will smiled, "So Annabeth, tell us about this boyfriend of yours."

I could feel myself blush and Will winced from being kicked under the table from someone. He glared at Mark and I laughed a little, "Ok… his name's Percy, he lives in New York City, um… he's a swimmer."

Luella said, "How'd you meet?"

"At summer camp when we were twelve."

Mark said, "Wow you've been together that long?"

I laughed, "Oh no, we got together this summer. But he was my best friend before that."

Luella smiled, "That's the best kind, when you're friends before." I smiled, she's definitely an Aphrodite girl, and I can see it now. But before I would've never guessed, except for the fact that she's somehow fluent in French.

After lunch I hardly saw Luella, let alone spoke to her. I thought about confronting her after school, she needed to hear about Camp Half-Blood, and the good things that come with being a demigod. But when I was walking out of school I turned the corner and saw her walking away with Mark. They were too far away for me to catch up. But I could tell that he had his hand on her shoulder. I smiled a little and walked the other way. When I got home there was a small box on the doorstep. It had my name written on it in familiar handwriting and blue marker. I rushed up to my room and plopped down on my bed, ripping open the box. I saw a note on the inside that read:

Dear Annabeth,

I hope you're having a great time in San Francisco. Thalia and I were in F.A.O. Schwartz and I just had to get this for you. Is that corny? Ok maybe… don't laugh at me! Well anyways, I miss you a lot, I don't know when I'll see you in person but I can only hope it's soon. Here's your cheesy present.

-Seaweed Brain

I smiled so wide at that note. Oh Percy, Percy, Percy. You are too sweet. I put the paper lightly on my bed and looked inside. Sitting there was a round, gray owl stuffed animal. It was really adorable; I hugged it close to me and then placed it right on my pillow. That night I went to sleep hugging my little owl. Tuesday and Wednesday went the same as Monday. Luella avoided me; Mark was definitely much friendlier to me though. I saw them together a lot. Her blessing was wearing off, and so were the crowds, but she and Mark seemed closer than ever.

* * *

On Thursday, after school, I sat in the courtyard, soaking in the unfamiliar sunrays. I checked the time and pulled out my phone. I lifted the flap of my leather messenger bag and unfolded a big piece of white paper. On the sign were the words: GO PERCY on it in green marker. Percy had a swim meet in around half an hour, and I hoped he'd get my message before it started. I held out my Hephaestus-phone and took a picture of myself holding the sign up. Then I wrote the message: "_Good luck at the meet Percy! I'm cheering for you!"_ in the body of the text. I hit send and then laid back down on the grass, lying calmly.

I felt myself drifting off until I sensed a sudden presence beside me. It wasn't the normal kind when you can tell someone has walked up to you. In this case, someone just appeared out of thin air. I turned my head calmly to my side and saw a breathtakingly gorgeous woman in yoga clothes lying right next to me. She turned her head and smiled at me.

"Hey." She said nonchalantly, and then turned back to sunbathing.

I looked at her with murder in my eyes, "If you have something to say, Aphrodite, just say it. Otherwise, I have something to tell you-"

She sighed, her eyes closed and her hands behind her head, "Don't be so dramatic Annabeth." I almost choked laughing at the irony. She turned her head to me with a small pout, "aren't you excited to see me?"

"Quite the opposite actually-"

She laughed, "You girls are so ungrateful sometimes. Let me tell you, when I helped out Helen and Paris, she did nothing but cower in her room all day. There was very little romance…"

"That was the Trojan War! You started it, what did you expect?"

She clicked her tongue in a disapproving manner, "And after all I've done…"

I sighed, "So true. How could I not thank you for bothering me non-stop? How could I be _so_ ungrateful for your lack of interest in your daughter, my friend? For claiming her at the most inconvenient time, for ignoring her, even though Percy said after the war that-"

"Oh Percy said this, Percy said that. I thought you wore the pants in that relationship."

I laughed, "Well you of all people would know about our relationship, with all of the manipulating and meddling you do. I'll tell you what, why don't you just send me the script for next week? Will Annabeth crack? Or will she kick some godly butt? You tell me."

"Let's calm down, shall we? Don't you want to know why I'm here?"

I sighed and closed my eyes, "When I open my eyes, hopefully you'll be gone."

"I would be offended if the reason I was here wasn't so important."

Curse my curiosity. "Fine what is it?" I said with my eyes still closed.

She stuck out her left arm and placed a slip of thick paper in my hand. I held it up to my face, the sun curled into my sight around its corners. It was a plane ticket for this Sunday afternoon, Virgin America airlines, from San Francisco International Airport to LaGuardia in New York. I looked at her in confusion, "A plane ticket?"

She sat up and started stretching on the grass. "I told you I would take care of it."

"Take care of what?"

"Aren't you supposed to be the smart one? You and Percy, Ms. Attitude!"

"So you got me a trip to New York, on Virgin America… and this will fix things somehow?"

"Yes, well Richard Branson and I are like this," she held up her right hand, with the fingers crossed. "And it's not just a trip, you're moving back."

A kernel of hope rose inside of me, "Wait. Really?"

She stopped her downward dog pose and looked at me with a smile, "Yes. All you have to do is talk to your parents, it's all arranged. You'll be staying at the Jackson's house, going to Goode High School. You start next Monday."

I admit I was having an ok time in San Francisco, despite my complaints. Taking this gift kind of felt like I was giving up, being a quitter. "I don't know…"

She changed from a nonchalant smile to a serious scowl, "Look, I've put up with your back-talk, but don't you forget who's the goddess here and who's just a teenager. You're going to New York. And that's the end of this discussion."

I sighed, "Ok… fine, I'll go."

She smiled and then laid back down. I looked at her with my head tilted, eyebrows raised. "Isn't this your cue to disappear in a puff of pink perfume or something?"

She shook her head with a sincere laugh, "Not just yet."

Right then I heard a familiar voice behind me say, "Annabeth? Can we talk?"

I turned my head to see Luella standing about a foot behind me. I smiled, relieved, "Of course. But first, I need to introduce you to someone."

She looked confused and I turned to Aphrodite, who was now doing child's pose and taking deep breaths. I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to me, "Yes?"

I rolled my eyes and said to Luella, "Luella, meet your mother."

Her eyes grew wide and she shuffled over to face Aphrodite, who was standing now, her arms crossed, but smiling. Luella looked at her ever-changing face. Then to me, with a questioning look, then back to Aphrodite. "Mom?"

Aphrodite smiled and, to my surprise and truthfully, jealousy, she gave Luella a big hug. "Hello Luella, you look so beautiful."

Luella's eyes got teary, "You're my mother? But you look so young…"

"I can be anything I want, I'm a goddess after all." Luella just nodded and put her head in Aphrodite's shoulder. Soon Aphrodite pulled away and lifted Luella's chin gently. "Luella, I'm sorry but I must go soon. This is more interaction than Zeus would approve of." She then whispered something in her ear, making Luella blush, and then kissed her cheek. Aphrodite turned to me, gave me a wink and then disappeared in (of course) a cloud of pink perfume.

When the cloud subsided, Luella was left staring at me. "Annabeth, I think we need to talk."

I laughed, "Yeah, we definitely do. C'mon…" I grabbed her hand and we sat on the bench that we first met on.

She sighed, brushed her curls out of her face and put on her glasses, looking more like the girl I had met about a week ago than I had seen recently. We started talking about everything. I started from the beginning, the birth of the gods, and ended with the recent Titan war. I told her about the Mist, about Camp Half-Blood, about some kids at camp, about Chiron, about everything. And this time, she listened. I found out that she had seen monsters all her life, they never got near her, but she thought she was crazy. I said it was because she's a demigod, she can see through the Mist, but because she's a daughter of Aphrodite, a less powerful god, and because she was unaware of who she was, they wouldn't attack.

She got nervous, "So does that mean monsters will come after me now?"

"Well, there is a much greater possibility, because you are aware you're a demigod, but pretty much every child of Aphrodite is able to live in the mortal world without problems. But you will need training, you're coming to Camp Half-Blood this summer."

She smiled, "I know, I want to." I smiled and gave her a hug, "Annabeth, I'm sorry about this week, and last weekend. It's just that when you and Rachel left my house, my dad broke down. He was a pro wrestler and he's usually the strongest guy in the world to me, but when it comes to my mom… Aphrodite- he just loved her so much. And she broke his heart."

"Those are the gods for you, Aphrodite especially." She frowned, "Sorry I didn't mean it like that-"

"It's fine, I don't even know her… but anyways, I'm sorry I avoided you. I've never had anything like this happen to me, and suddenly everything I've ever known isn't true anymore. I didn't know what to think. I just wanted to pretend like everything was back to normal. But even that didn't work when I got the blessing, everyone started to notice me… it was kind of wonderful. But, I realize now who my real friends are. You were the one who liked me before I was turned into a Barbie-doll, and I treated you like a disease when you were just trying to tell me the truth…"

I smiled and laughed, "Oh stop, it's fine. Believe me, I absolutely get it. I had to learn I was a demigod myself, you know… of course that was when I was seven and living on the streets…"

She gasped, "What? You were…"

I smiled; "Oh forget it-" I looked in my right hand and realized I was still holding the plane ticket. I looked back into her eyes, "Luella, I need to talk to my parents… but I have to tell you, tomorrow will be my last day at Hoover High."

She looked up in sadness, "What? Why?"

I tried to hide my smile, "I'm going back to New York…"

We stood up and I hugged her again, all of these hugs were so unlike me… she said, "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

I nodded and before we walked our separate ways I added, "Wait, what did Aphrodite whisper to you?"

She blushed, a lot, and said, "She- she told me to be myself… around Mark… because he'll like me for myself."

I smiled really wide and patted her shoulder, then we turned and I walked home. I was going to miss her, but I'll save the goodbyes for later. Now I had to focus on telling my family that I was moving… that was going to be a challenge.

But when I went to sleep that night, things had gone better than I ever expected. My dad, he understood, I could tell he was really regretful that he couldn't spend time with me, but he said now was not the best time for us to try to be a family, if he was away for work, I didn't want me to be alone. Helen seemed sorry, as much as she could. But me leaving means getting back to her normal family… but I tried not to think about that. When I told Bobby and Matthew, they gave me the biggest and sweetest hugs that my heart broke a little. If Aphrodite hadn't ordered me to go, I don't think I would've been able to choose. But every time I think of Percy, I can't help but smile at the fact that I'll be seeing him so soon.

On Friday I told my teachers and my friends that I was leaving, it was harder than I thought. All the guys gave me hugs and we had some big laughs. Saying goodbye to Shelby was easy, I didn't. Saying goodbye to Luella and Mark was the hardest. They had been so kind to me, something I wasn't used to. But as I sat in my seat on the airplane, I felt resolved and happy. I was going home. I almost giggled to myself, but there was a plane of passengers around me… I couldn't wait to see Percy, and he had no clue that I was coming.

Surprise.

* * *

**SURPRISE PERCY!  
**

**REMEMBER, THE NEXT CHAPTER IS IN ANNABETH'S POV AS WELL.**

**I really hope that if you liked this chapter, or have anything to say or to ask, you'll review. It is the best to see so many reviews, thanks for reading everyone!**

**REVIEW PLEASE**

MORE REVIEWS MEANS PERCY+ANNABETH TOGETHER IN THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL COME SOONER!

**That's right. The next chapter. There will be epic Percabeth, together at last!**

**~HowlOak~**


	11. Percy Jackson's Girlfriend: Annabeth II

**Hi everybody! Sorry it's been a little while, I know this was the one chapter you have all been waiting for! But here it is, PERCABETH AT LAST!**

**Anyways, I had a lot of time to write because we got school off from Hurricane Sandy. My family and I are fine, in case you were wondering :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the original characters, everything else is mine :)**

**Here are the character descriptions one more time, in case you forgot:**

**Mel:** Hispanic with long, dark brown hair and dark eyes, average height.

**Alice:** Caucasian with strawberry blonde hair that's cut short, average height.

**Marie:** Caucasian with medium-length light brown straight hair, taller than average.

**Tanner:** Half black, with short curly hair and blue eyes, tall.

** Miles:** Asian with normal length black hair and dark eyes, tall.

**Andre:** Caucasian with short blonde hair and green eyes, tall.

**Read and Review, I hope you like it!**

* * *

Chapter 11

Percy Jackson's Girlfriend: Annabeth II

Annabeth POV

_On Friday I told my teachers and my friends that I was leaving, it was harder than I thought. All the guys gave me hugs and we had some big laughs. Saying goodbye to Shelby was easy, I didn't. Saying goodbye to Luella and Mark was the hardest. They had been so kind to me, something I wasn't used to. But as I sat in my seat on the airplane, I felt resolved and happy. I was going home. I almost giggled to myself, but there was a plane of passengers around me… I couldn't wait to see Percy, and he had no clue that I was coming. _

_Surprise._

* * *

My eyes were closed when I felt the rumbling of the plane going into its final descent. I blinked, adjusting to the fluorescent lights and peered out the window. The sky was black, but I could see the colorful lights of the city as we passed over, and soon we touched down on the runway. I hurriedly laced up my sneakers and stuffed my unopened and inflated bag of chips in my backpack. Soon the passengers were grabbing their suitcases from the overhead bins. I slipped into the crowded aisle and took my small wheelie bag down. Unfortunately I had a checked bag that I was going to have to get later. I followed the stream of families, businessmen and excited tourists to the baggage claim.

After an agonizing and not appreciated twenty minutes of waiting, the bags finally started tumbling in. I soon saw my bag come in and I waited for it to reach me. But a few people ahead of me; I saw someone else grab it and start walking away. I rushed over to the guy; he looked around my age. He was attractive: tall with light brown hair and blue eyes.

"Hey- stop, that's my bag."

He turned with a confused look and looked down at the bag. "No, this is mine."

I was getting annoyed. He smirked at me crossing my arms; "I'm pretty sure it's mine, here look-" I bent down and turned it to the side where I wrote Annabeth Chase in black marker a few years ago, "Annabeth Chase, that's me."

His eyes went wide and he took his hands off the bag quickly, "Wow I'm sorry, I have the same bag."

I smiled, "It's fine, I probably would've taken yours then if it had come out first."

He nodded and then looked back at the bag carousel, "I think I see mine circling, sorry again Annabeth!" Then he ran off.

I smiled and pulled my two bags along the marble floor, heading towards the taxi line. I was about to go through the automatic doors when I heard someone running up to me. I turned to see the guy I had talked to earlier.

I tilted my head and raised my eyebrows, "Hi?"

He smiled, "Hi." He stuck out his hand and I shook it. "I'm Kieran."

"Hi Kieran, nice to meet you. Again."

He laughed and we both walked to the taxi line. "So Annabeth, are you traveling for business or pleasure?"

I smiled, "Both I guess. I'm moving here-"

"That's all your stuff?"

I looked down at my luggage and laughed, "Yeah I'm a light packer. But anyways, I'm moving here from San Francisco."

He nodded, "What's the pleasure part?"

"Well I love New York, I used to live here actually. Plus my friends and my boyfriend live here. What about you?"

"I just came back from a swimming competition in San Francisco. I was representing my high school, McKafferny Academy, in a national meet."

"Wow, impressive. How'd you do?" The line was moving slowly but steadily, that's New York for you.

He grinned and lifted a medal from the outside pocket of his backpack. "First place."

I gave him a short applause. Soon he was next in line for a taxi. "I'm surprised my boyfriend didn't compete, he's a swimmer too."

"Well you had to qualify for it over the summer."

I nodded in recognition, "That explains it."

A cab pulled up and he pulled his bag around, "What's your boyfriend's name?"

"Percy Jackson."

At that Kieran looked up in surprise and smiled as he got in the cab, "That means I'll definitely see you around, catch ya later Annabeth." I wondered what he meant by that. But Kieran seems really nice, so I hoped he was right.

I waved goodbye as my cab pulled up. But this one was different from the rest, though the other people around me didn't seem to notice. I peered in the front window and saw the Gray Sisters clawing at each other for an eyeball. I sighed and shoved my bags into the back seat and slid in, slamming the door.

"What are you doing here? I was waiting for a normal cab…"

Tempest sighed and snatched the eye away from Anger, "Hello Annabeth dearie, it's so good to see you."

I laughed at the pun and gave them a handful of golden drachmas, "Here, just take me to the Jackson's without crashing into something."

Wasp cackled suspiciously and we sped through Queens. I wasn't paying attention and I suddenly realized we were in the Midtown Tunnel. I shot up and snapped, "What are you three doing? I'm headed uptown, you should've taken the Queensboro Bridge!"

Tempest sighed, "No. We have specific orders from Lady Love herself to take you to the Library Hotel near the Empire State Building."

"Why? She said I was staying with the Jacksons."

Anger turned and smiled with her one tooth, "She said that she wanted you to surprise Percy tomorrow, so you have to stay in a hotel tonight."

I grumbled about the finicky goddess as I stared out of the window and slumped into the seat.

I woke up the next morning in my big and fluffy bed, admittedly happy with the hotel choice. I turned to the clock and it said 7:00 AM, that gave me an hour to get to Goode High School. I sat up, pulled my curtains back and let the morning sunlight spill in. I grabbed an expensive granola bar from the mini fridge and ate my breakfast while I watched the news quickly. No unexplained weather phenomena, no freak animal attacks, it's a new world out there for demigods. I unzipped my suitcase and pulled out a cozy cable-knit cream sweater. I slipped that on as well as some dark blue jeans and my gray converse. Then I ran to the bathroom and quickly brushed my teeth and did my normal routine: brush hair, wash face, light eyeliner, deodorant, strap dagger on, baseball cap in pocket. I looked at my hair, then pulled it into a messy bun and some curls fell out, but I was in too much of a rush to care. The clock said 7:30, but I still had a while on the subway to school. I grabbed my leather workbag and rushed out of the door, taking my hotel key on my way out.

I got out of the subway twenty minutes later and walked the remaining five blocks swiftly. I relaxed my pace as I got closer to the school and saw all of the other students. As I walked up to the gates before a courtyard and pavement front, three girls in similar wedge boots walked past me and knocked me on the shoulder, making me drop my bag and my water bottle tumbled out. I half sighed half growled at the three girls who didn't even turn around. I brushed a blonde curl out of my face and was about to bend down and pick up my water bottle, but someone else ran over and did it for me. It was a guy, half black with short curly hair and light eyes.

He smiled and handed me my bottle, "Here you are."

I smiled gratefully and put it back in my bag. "Thanks."

I stepped forward, continuing my walk to school and he walked beside me, "I'm Tanner."

I turned my head and said, "Annabeth."

"Nice to meet you Annabeth. I like your necklace, my friend has one like it. His name's Percy."

I smiled and instinctively put my fingers on the college ring and twirled it for a second, "Nice name."

He laughed, "He doesn't think so, you should see his face when teachers call him by his full name: Perseus." I laughed; that always embarrassed Percy. "So are you new to Goode? I haven't seen you around this year."

I nodded. We turned the corner of the gate and the bell rang inside the building. Students got up and rushed inside, and Tanner waved goodbye before he ran to a group of kids far off to my left. I saw the three girls who knocked into me earlier laughing and flipping their hair, hopefully I wouldn't have to deal with them in the future. But my luck had never been that good. I walked in behind almost all of the students, recognizing no one. I didn't know when I was going to see Percy, but I figured I must run into him eventually, hopefully scaring the Hades out of him. I laughed to myself and got some weird looks, what a great way to start in a new school. Thinking about it, it's weird for a demigod to switch schools for a normal reason (well I guess a lovey-dovey goddess forcing you to move isn't normal). But having not blown up Hoover High, I'm sure Percy would consider this normal.

I squeezed through the hall and entered the school office at the front. There I saw a familiar looking man shuffling through papers, his back towards me. I walked over to him and gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder. He turned around and smiled instantly.

"Annabeth! It's so great to see you." Paul pulled me into a sweet hug, "Sally said you were coming but to not tell Percy."

I laughed, "Yeah, that sounds about right. It's great to see you too Paul, how's the school year been so far?"

He gathered his papers and ushered me to the lady at the school office desk. "It's been good, how was San Francisco?"

"Fine, better than I expected I guess."

He smiled and said to the lady behind the counter, "Amanda, this is our new sophomore, Annabeth Chase." He turned to me and said, "I'll see you later Annabeth; I have to get to class." He patted me on the shoulder and I waved goodbye.

Amanda gave me a bored smile, like she'd rather be anywhere than working at a high school, "Hello Anna…?"

"-beth, Annabeth Chase."

She popped her gum and nodded, sorting through papers on her messy desk, "Here you are," she handed me a few sheets, "these are your schedule, locker number and combination- don't lose that one- and some behavior guidelines." I took the papers and she waved me off rudely.

I was about to walk out the door, with no clue where to go, when a girl with short strawberry blonde hair and freckles ran up to me. "Hold on! Wait!"

I stopped and looked confused, "Um, yeah?"

She stuck out her hand and I shook it, "Hi I'm Alice Garber, I'm your student guide for the day."

I smiled, "I'm Annabeth Chase, thanks I think I'd get lost with all of these kids."

She looked out of the doorway and pulled me into the crowded hall, "Oh it's not that bad, you get used to it. C'mon lets go to your locker."

We walked a ways down the hallway and she told me about Goode and the teachers, but I wasn't really listening, I was looking for a certain seaweed brain in the crowd. She stopped me and waved a hand in front of my face, "Annabeth? Hello?"

I shook my head, "Oh sorry Alice, I guess I spaced."

She pointed to a wall of lockers completely surrounded by teenagers. "There's your locker… somewhere in that mess of people."

I laughed, "How about we wait for some room to get there first." She nodded, smiling, and we sat down on a bench at the other side of the hallway. There were lots of bright posters, some for clubs, others were flyers for an upcoming dance. I turned to Alice and saw she was wearing a Goode Swim shirt, "Are you on the swim team?"

She looked down confused, "Oh, no. But my boyfriend, Miles, and most of my friends are. I'm just wearing this to celebrate our school's win against McKafferny Academy last week." McKafferny… is that the school that Kieran goes to? No wonder he knew who Percy was. Alice pointed at the wall of lockers, which had become significantly less busy, "Look, there are my friends now. Wow I completely forgot Mel and Percy's lockers are right here."

My head snapped up when she said Percy, "Did you say Percy?"

She nodded as we stood up, "Yeah, Percy Jackson. Real sweet guy, he's funny too." She saw me smiling I guess because she laughed and added, "Uh oh, you've got that look."

"What look?"

"The I'm-in-love-with-Percy-Jackson look."

I raised an eyebrow, "Do you see this _look_ often?"

She nodded, "Pretty much every girl in school has a crush on him. And there he is..." She pointed at the lockers and I saw Percy, in person, for the first time in a long time. He looked great, well incredible really. His hair was a little longer, it's not like he cuts it so what did I expect? His eyes were happy and mesmerizing as always. He was wearing a Goode Swim shirt also, with his CHB necklace around his neck. Alice grabbed my arm and pulled me over to the group around him. There were a lot of kids, it's no wonder he didn't see me. I saw Tanner talking to him, something about a girl. Alice pulled me around, we were standing behind Percy now; I was so close to him it was funny.

Percy said, "For the last time, I really do have a girlfriend. Thalia was just messing with me when she said that. Besides, there's no way this new girl is prettier than her."

Tanner replied, "Believe me Perce, you're gonna drop the fake girlfriend act when you see this girl-" He stopped short, embarrassed when he saw me standing by him. Percy didn't follow his gaze though. Instead Percy took a sip of water from a water bottle. "Oh hey Annabeth I didn't see you there…"

I smiled at Tanner and Percy started coughing, choking on the water he was drinking when Tanner said that. I laughed and patted his back, getting him to swallow.

"Come on Seaweed Brain, I didn't expect a little water to be your downfall." Percy's head whipped around so fast at the sound of my voice. Everyone was surprised by my reaction to him choking and especially by Percy's reaction. I smiled at him. His face looked more surprised than when I kissed him in St. Helens.

"Annabeth!"

I laughed and he pulled me into a gigantic hug, my feet lifted a bit off the ground. I held on tight and breathed in his salty sea smell that I missed so much. When he put me down I noticed people had gathered to look at us, but I was more focused on Percy's adorable, grinning face.

He held my hand and tugged me closer, "What are you doing here?"

I grinned too and brushed the black hair out of his eyes, "I moved back."

He pouted, "Oh c'mon, don't get my hopes up like that."

I gave his right arm a friendly punch, "I'm serious Seaweed Brain!"

His look of doubt soon turned into one of excitement. Then he pulled me closer, grabbed my waist and he kissed me. We kissed in front of everyone, all of the gawkers and whisperers and gossips. But I didn't care. Not even a tiny, miniscule part of me cared for one second. Because I was with Percy.

Soon (much to soon) we pulled apart, Percy frowning because of it. Alice was the first to speak, "So I take it you two know each other?"

I nodded, still smiling, while Percy smirked at Tanner, who had a very shocked look on his face. Then he quickly opened his locker, still holding my hand, and pulled out a picture of us at the beach. He held it to Tanner's face and said, "See? I told you she's real!"

An Asian guy, I'm assuming Miles because his arm was wrapped around Alice's waist, said, "Can someone explain what just happened?"

Percy replied, "Everybody, this is Annabeth Chase, my girlfriend." He turned towards me, "Annabeth, this is Miles, Andre, Marie and Mel. I see you already met Alice and Tanner…" then a realization hit him, "Oh! _You're_ the new girl…" I laughed and clapped for him sarcastically while he ruffled his hair, a little embarrassed.

I turned to his friends that I was just introduced to and got friendly waves, though a bit hesitant and quite suspicious, from almost everyone. Only Tanner was somewhat glaring at me.

He crossed his arms and said, "Annabeth! Why didn't you tell me you were Percy's girlfriend outside?"

I shrugged, "Sorry, you didn't ask." They all laughed, even Tanner was trying hard not to smile. Then the bell rang and the whispering crowds around us dispersed. Although it was clear Percy and I were the main topic of everyone's discussions. Everybody waved goodbye except for a familiar looking Hispanic girl.

Percy nudged me, "Hurry up and go to your locker so I can get to homeroom. By the way, what's your schedule?"

I passed him the papers as I quickly spun my lock and shoved some of my books in the empty locker. When I turned around Percy was still squinting at the page, trying to decipher it.

I sighed and grabbed it from his hand; "Let me see…" I tried to focus on the words but the font they used was like dyslexic kryptonite.

The Hispanic girl looked at my face and then took the paper out of my hands, "You're dyslexic too?" I nodded as she read out: "Hmm, same homeroom as us… besides science and elective, you've got the same schedule as Percy. Lucky girl." We both smiled as she pulled at Percy's arm, "Well c'mon let's go; we're going to be late. Again."

Percy took my hand and guided me to a room down the corridor where practically all of the seats were full. The girl looked at Percy and I for a second and then maybe a little begrudgingly took a seat far away in the corner, leaving us with two seats somewhat close to each other. That was nice of her. I whispered to Percy as we walked to our seats, "What was her name again?"

He whispered in my ear and gave me quick goose bumps, "Mel." I gave a short nod and then we sat down a few desks apart. I looked around and I saw a few people staring at me. I sighed and ignored them. Unfortunately it was harder to ignore the whispering duo behind me.

I turned to the two girls and they shut their mouths quickly. But then one leaned forward and said, "Is it true you're Percy Jackson's girlfriend?"

At first I glared at them, from their faces they seemed pretty intimidated, I think it's the eyes. But then I just sighed and nodded my head, turning away from them. They went back to talking about me. In the midst of the buzzing room I heard them saying things like: 'most popular guy,' 'didn't know he had a girlfriend,' and for some reason they said 'Mel' and 'Seraphina' a lot. I decided to ask Percy about it later. When the bell rang I stood up and picked up my bag, an arm wrapped around my waist and I looked up into my favorite pair of sea green eyes.

"Hey Wise Girl."

I smiled as we walked out of the room, "Hey Seaweed Brain."

He shook his head in disbelief, "I still can't believe that you're here. How did this happen? Where are you staying?" We walked out of the door and into the hallway. Percy got lots of waves and 'hellos' from people. I didn't expect him to be so popular. I turned to look at him and his eyebrows were up, awaiting the answer to the question. Should I tell him I'm staying at his house? No, I think I'll surprise him later. We walked into our next classroom and sat down in two seats next to each other.

I answered his earlier question, "I know; I can't believe I'm here either. Long story short, Luella got claimed a little after our Iris Message. Aphrodite's her mother." Percy's eyebrows were up, "I know, I was surprised too. So then on Thursday Aphrodite visited and gave me a plane ticket to New York, telling me that I had to move and come to Goode. Luella spoke with her; it was sweet… for Aphrodite. Then yesterday I hopped on a plane and now I'm here."

Percy smiled, "Wow I never thought I'd be thanking Aphrodite. So where are you staying-" The teacher cleared her throat and started writing on the board.

"Settle down class. Settle. Down." The class became silent and I sent an apologetic glance in Percy's direction. He mimed someone writing a note. I rolled my eyes and scribbled on a slip of paper (in Greek):

_I'll tell you later! Now don't get me in trouble on my first day! :) _

I slid it to him and he just rolled his eyes with a smile. The rest of class was interesting, I was trying to focus on catching up with the math we were learning; what I was learning in California was a unit behind. But I kept noticing Percy looking at me, when I would glance his way he would just smile and I would smile and then we would turn away. It wasn't awkward, on the contrary, it was funny and sweet, but I was trying to focus! When class ended I gave him a small punch on the arm and told him to stop distracting me. But he clearly couldn't follow instructions because he kissed me on the cheek and I completely forgot what I was mad at him for.

We walked hand in hand to our next class, English. When we walked in, Paul came over and gave me a short hug, which got a few confused glances from the students who were already in the classroom.

He said, "Annabeth I'm so glad you're in my class! In fact you came at the perfect time." Percy looked at Paul with confusion, and he added, "You'll see why in a minute." Percy and I took our seats in the back and Paul started his lesson. After handing out some essays the class had written a week ago, he started talking about the next unit: Classical literature. I grinned as he smiled at me; then I turned to see Percy looking at me for some clarification.

I whispered, "Greek stuff Seaweed Brain." He instantly smiled and nodded in a way that said: I can actually do this. Paul held up a thick yellow book and said that first we would be reading _The Odyssey_ by Homer.

There were grumbles but Paul continued, "Alright class, come up and get your books." The whole class got up and out of their seats, Percy and I included, and walked up to a cart full of books. Everyone was bickering over the better quality copies while the stragglers got the older versions. As we walked up, Paul pulled Percy and I aside and handed us two books, smiling. I flipped through the pages and realized it was in Ancient Greek, the original version of the story. I had already read the book of course, multiple times, but no matter how well I know the story, the English words don't get easier to read when you're dyslexic. Thankfully Paul understands; Greek is much easier for Percy and I to read.

After English, Percy had science while I had an elective course. My schedule said it was Technical Drawing, the basics of architectural sketching, so I was excited. Percy walked me to my class. As I approached the door he smiled and said, "I'll meet you here after this period, okay?"

I nodded, "Sure, okay." Then I leaned in and gave him a short kiss on the lips. When I got back down from the balls of my feet (he's much taller than me now) he brushed a curl out of my face. I was so glad to be with him, it felt like I had never left. Suddenly I heard a crash behind him. Percy and I turned to see a girl on her knees, picking up what looks like the contents of a school bag. We got down and started helping her pick it up.

She looked up and smiled thankfully, and then said, "Oh hi Percy, I was just rushing to science. Shouldn't you be there now?"

Percy responded, "Hey Lucy, yeah but I was walking Annabeth to class." He turned to me and said, "Annabeth, this is my friend Lucy. Lucy this is my girlfriend."

We got up and I smiled at her, "Hi Lucy, it's nice to meet you."

She smiled back, but then she had a shocked look, "You- you're the girl I saw."

I was confused, "What do you mean?"

She shook her head and mumbled something, "Outside the pizzeria… after the swim meet."

Percy shook his head, "No Lucy, Annabeth just flew in last night from California."

Then it hit me. I remembered the dream I had last weekend, after Rachel left. I realized the Hispanic girl I had seen with Percy was Mel, who I had met earlier today. And the girl who looked right at me through the window was Lucy. "How- how did you see me?" I asked her. It _was_ a demigod dream, so it's possible for a demigod or some mythical creature to have seen me, but not a mortal.

Percy looked as confused as ever when Lucy responded with delight, "Oh thank god, so you _were_ there! I thought I was crazy, you looked like a ghost or something…"

I shook my head and replied softly, "No… it was just a dream."

* * *

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